Chemical substitute

[ronald lamarsh]

Is there a common household item that can be subswtituted for sodium carbonate i.e. baking soda?

[Kirk Keyes]

You want to look for "washing soda" at the grocery store. It is the same as sodium carbonate decahydrate, Na2C03*10H20.

[Nick_3536]

baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Isn't it?

[Donald Qualls]

Correct. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, and can be converted to sodium carbonate if you absolutely can't find the right kind (cook it at some high temperature until it stops outgassing from the heat and you'll have sodium carbonate anhydrous). I buy Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda in the laundry aisle, right next to the borax (which I also buy -- must remember to try mixing some D-76, haven't used it in about 25 years).

[Brian Vuillemenot]

I believe that baking powder (not soda) is sodium carbonate.

[Glenn Thoreson]

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. You just need to remember that it is not anhydrous and use the conversion factor for decahydrate, if anhydrous is called for. In other words, it takes a little more because it contains water.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I believe that baking powder (not soda) is sodium carbonate.

No, baking powder is baking soda with cream of tartar added, so that it does not require an acid in the recipe (the cream of tartar forms tartaric acid).

Washing soda is sodium carbonate, as the other posts have indicated.

[paulr]

You want to look for "washing soda" at the grocery store. It is the same as sodium carbonate decahydrate, Na2C03*10H20.

this might be the same stuff that they sell as "100 mule team" or something like that. i knew a guy who mixed his developers with it ... seemed to work fine.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Instant coffee (in conjunction with washing soda) makes a great film and paper developer. Also chemicals for pools such as PH control I believe is sodium carbonate, but I could be mistaken. Store bought lye is a great activator.

[Kirk Keyes]

this might be the same stuff that they sell as "100 mule team" or something like that. i knew a guy who mixed his developers with it ... seemed to work fine.

No - 20 Mule Team (or other numbers of mules) are borax. While borax is used in some developer formulas, it is not the same as sodium carbonate.

[paulr]

ahhhh, right. thanks for the correction.

100 mules would be way too many anyhow.

[Donald Qualls]

One other bit of misinformation -- at least one poster stated that washing soda is the decahydrate; that's incorrect. It's monohydrate. Very important distinction for getting the correct conversion factor for formulae that call for anhydrous (moderately common) or decahydrate (very rare). The decahydrate we use routinely in photographic chemicals is borax -- sodium tetraborate decahydrate.