Sodium Sulfate, Anhydrous

In the laboratory, anhydrous sodium sulfate is widely used as an inert drying agent, for removing traces of water from organic solutions.

Simply mix Sodium sulfate into solvent and stirr properly, all moisture will absorbed by sodium sulfate. Principal behind that is Sodium Sulfate Crystals consist of [Na(OH2)6]+ ions with octahedral molecular geometry. These octahedral share edges such that eight of the 10 water molecules are bound to sodium and two others are interstitial, being hydrogen bonded to sulfate. These cations are linked to the sulfate anions via hydrogen bonds.