sodium sulfite

noun

, Chemistry.

1. a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, Na 2 SO 3 , used chiefly as a food preservative, as a bleaching agent, and as a developer in photography.

Example Sentences

To make the humanmade version, the team first softened thin strips of oak by boiling them with lye and sodium sulfite.

From Science Magazine

Then the gases are routed into a device called a scrubber, where they bubble through a caustic-soda solution; chemical reaction between the SO2 and the soda produces two salts, sodium sulfite and sodium sulfate, that are pumped from the scrubber in waste liquids into tanks.

From Time Magazine Archive

The flask is now warmed to about 20'0 on a steam bath, until the solid sodium sulfite, which has separated while cooling, redissolves.

From Project Gutenberg

Notes If the sodium sulfite solution contains an excess of alkali, a black tar tends to form when the solution is warmed, and very little phenylhydrazine is obtained.

From Project Gutenberg

Most published directions for the preparation of phenylhydrazine specify the use of zinc dust and acetic acid following the reduction with sodium sulfite.

From Project Gutenberg