Magnesium Oxide

Alternate Names: Magnesia, Periclase

Oxide	Analysis	Formula
MgO	100.00%	1.00
Oxide Weight		40.30
Formula Weight		40.30

Notes

Magnesium oxide or Periclase is a synthetic pure MgO mineral produced in electric arc furnaces by sintering Magnesite powder. Magnesium oxide is very refractory, and is used in the manufacture of bricks and crucibles for the metal processing industries, thermocouple insulation, etc.

Its low comparative cost, thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity properties at elevated temperatures make this material valuable for heating unit insulation. Crucibles and shapes, thermocouple insulation, infrared glass are other applications.

Slightly soluble in water, soluble in acids.

Related Information

Magnesium carbonate vs. oxide: One big difference

Here is a screenshot of side-by-side recipes in my account at insight-live.com. It takes 120 mag carb to source the same amount of MgO as 50 mag ox. I just made the two recipes, went into calculation mode and kept bumping up the magcarb by 5 until the chemistry was the same. Note the LOI of the magcarb version is 40. This one would certainly crawl very badly.

Links

Typecodes	Generic Material Generic materials are those with no brand name. Normally they are theoretical, the chemistry portrays what a specimen would be if it had no contamination. Generic materials are helpful in educational situations where students need to study material theory (later they graduate to dealing with real world materials). They are also helpful where the chemistry of an actual material is not known. Often the accuracy of calculations is sufficient using generic materials.
Materials	Magnesite
URLs	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_oxide Magnesium oxide at Wikipedia
Oxides	MgO - Magnesium Oxide, Magnesia
Minerals	Brucite Mineral form of magnesium hydroxide.

Data

Hardness (Moh)	3.5
Frit Softening Point	2800C

By Tony Hansen
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