"The process for making sodium borohydiride involves reacting boric acid with methanol to produce tri-methyl borate which is then reacted with sodium hydride at elevated temperatures. This yields sodium borohydride and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) together with methyl products which can be re-used in the process as methanol, plus some impurities and oils which are removed in a purification process.
Although considerable care and technical skill are required for the potentially explosive methyl borate-sodium hydride reaction, the overall process is straightforward and non-hazardous compared with the distillation of boron hydride fuels. Similarly this borohydride when made is both air- and moisture-stable, and is non-sensitive to shock - user-friendliness personified compared to some of the other boranes. It is mostly produced as Borol Solution, a 12 percent solution, with caustic soda and water, but is also made in solid forms - caplets, granules, and powder.
In paper bleaching, borohydride acts as a reducing agent to generate hydrosulphite within the mechanical pulping process. Hydrosulphite decolorizes the wood's lignin, most of which is retained in mechanical pulping (as opposed to chemical pulping in which most of the lignin is removed). Lignin is largely responsible for the brownish color of unbleached pulp. Borol Solution yields twice its own weight in hydrosulphite, and this modifies the color components of the lignin.
Borol Solution is used for most of the North American and European newsprint production and for a large range of other papers. Compared with most alternative bleaching agents, sodium borohydride leads to paper with higher finished strength characteristics and better brightness levels. It gives paper with excellent printing and ink-absorbing qualities, high bulk, high opacity, and high yield - at lower cost than other methods of bleaching. A more expensive process which employs hydrogen peroxide as the main bleaching agent can, in fact, yield up to ten percent extra brightness, and this is used for very high quality, 'whiter than white' papers."
taken from Borax's webiste
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