Summer is a time to head outside and enjoy the sunshine. Borates will be there to help you enjoy the great outdoors.
Don’t burn the BBQ
Barbeque briquettes are preferred by many to ordinary charcoal lumps; they burn more evenly and are easier to handle. But if it were not for a judicious addition of borates, the ash would tend to fly off and smother the meal being grilled. Borates help to bind the ash to the glowing charcoal layer, and also control the burn rate. They keep the cook cleaner, too.
Borates can also be found on the grill itself. Sodium borate helps to produce low-viscosity frits for enameling of metals—principally steel, cast iron, and aluminum.
Pooling resources
Left to themselves, swimming pools fast become algae and bacteria infested, hardly inviting and worse, unsafe and unhealthy. Traditionally, chlorine compounds have been used to avoid this state of affairs, but chlorine compounds are unstable in sunlight, and tend to combine with other chemicals in the water. But combined with borates, the mixture maintains pool water quality much better, and for longer, than either ingredient on its own.
How does your garden grow?
Top-selling garden fertilizers contain a balanced combination of all the most effective general fertilizer ingredients, including micronutrients:
- Boron as boric acid
- Zinc
- Manganese
- Molybdenum
- Chlorine
- Copper
- Iron
Just as your plants would like to find in the soil.
Night sparkling
Dazzling white firework starbursts and cascades—and even the humble sparkler—are the result of powdered or flaked aluminium fired by a powerful oxidant like bismuth nitrate. But the two chemicals together degrade relatively quickly, unless stabilized by the buffering action of boric acid.
Painting mold away
Damp or humid conditions do no good for exterior painted woodwork. After a few seasons, mold growth can often reappear, then must be washed away and the house repainted. A fungicidal primer basecoat is available containing borates.
Resources