Borates, heard of Solubor?

[threewide]

Has anyone herad of SOLUBOR? I found it here at an fertilizer outlet. 50lbs for $65.00 here is the MSDS.

http://www.pestell.com/msds/Solubor.pdf

Would this composition work in a pool? Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[chem geek]

I wrote about this in the Borax Source thread. You can skip to the last post for the bottom line which is that you can use it as a source somewhat similar to 20 Mule Team Borax except that you use somewhat more by weight (10-20%) if you are using it to raise the pH while if you are using it to add borates, you add about half as much by weight and roughly half as much acid.

The following table shows the amount of borate product and full-strength Muriatic Acid (31.45% Hydrochloric Acid) needed to raise borates by 10 ppm in a 10,000 gallon pool and start and end with a pH of 7.5:

........................................................................................... Product Weight .................. Acid Volume
20 Mule Team Borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) ...... 117.75 oz. (1.64 boxes) ...... 56.4 fl. oz.
ProTeam Supreme (sodium tetraborate pentahydrate) ........ 90.0 oz. (5.6 pounds) ........... 56.4 fl. oz.
Boric Acid ........................................................................... 76.4 oz. (4.8 pounds) ........... none (pH drops slightly)
Solubor (disodium octaborate tetrahydrate; DOT) ................ 63.7 oz. (4.0 pounds) .......... 26.9 fl. oz.

 

[threewide]

Awesome! I was reading MSDS and thought it would be ok, but to be sure I thought I'd check here!
Can't believe I missed that thread!

So it's twice as potent as 20 mule team Borax and not as much of an acid demand. Good deal!

Thank You very much!

Can't buy any til spring, but I'll be ok til then anyways!

 

[threewide]

Chem Geek, I read Your great post on Borates. I noticed there were concerns about the Borax turning into undissociated Boric Acid. In the MSDS of this source of Solubor it contains this.


Environmental Fate Data
Persistence/Degradation: Boron is naturally occurring and ubiquitous in the environment. Solubor
decomposes in the environment to natural borate.
Octanol/Water Partition Coefficient: No value. In aqueous solution disodium octaborate tetrahydrate
is converted substantially into undissociated boric acid.
Soil Mobility: Solubor is soluble in water and is leachable through normal soil

Maybe this will clarify the matter?

http://www.pestell.com/msds/Solubor.pdf

 

[chem geek]

Borates in pool water at typical pool pH are mostly undissociated boric acid so that is normal. At a pH of 7.5, 97.8% of the borates are undissociated boric acid while 2.3% are borate ion. That thread was concerned about forming octoborate ion instead of boric acid, but the MSDS implied that it indeed formed mostly boric acid which is what we want.