• Question: What is gass made out of

    • Keywords:
      • Click on a keyword to find out more on the RSC site:
      Asked by hubert to Angus on 24 Jun 2016.
      • Photo: Angus Cook

        Angus Cook answered on 24 Jun 2016:

        Glass is mainly made up of a compound called silicon dioxide (a silicon atom with two oxygen atoms). It’s also what makes up a lot of sand. If you melted lots of sand you’d end up with a type of glass.

        We also add some things to the silicon dioxide to make it melt a little easier, as well as to give it some of the properties that we want in glass (shine, nice and easy to see through, doesn’t dissolve in water). These are things like sodium carbonate, and oxides of magnesium, calcium and aluminium.

        These things are all melted together at about 1,500 degrees C, and the form the molten (liquid) glass.

        In materials science we also use the term ‘glass’ to describe things which don’t have a regular molecular structure inside them.

    Comments