Perlite is a very remarkable material

Perlite is a breed that can be found in places of volcanic eruptions. It is formed where the hot lava comes into contact with the earth at the edges of its stream. Due to the fact that the hot stream here quickly cools down, obsidian - volcanic glass is formed. Later, if obsidian is exposed to water, it is hydrated and a perlite-hydroxide of obsidian is produced.

The chemical composition of perlite (silicon dioxide, water, other elements) makes it possible to obtain a kind of "popcorn" at a temperature of 1200 degrees, when the aqueous substances expand, and the volume of perlite increases to 20 times. It turns out the so-called pearlite sand, which has unique physical properties. It is refractory, chemically inert, light, resistant to mold, rodents and microorganisms. Perlite is a material that is relevant for construction, medical, oil refining and gas industries, and metallurgy. It is successfully used at temperatures from minus 260 to plus 1000 degrees.

Perlite sand is mainly used for filling cavities with thermal insulation work, for finishing operations to increase sound insulation (3 cm perlite replaces 15 cm of bricks and provides noise absorption of 51 dB), to facilitate mortars in terms of specific gravity or improve the quality of metallurgical alloys.

After heat treatment, expanded perlite stores its properties for an unlimited amount of time. In appearance, perlite is a substance of white color in granules from 0.1 to 1.0 cm, having a bulk density of 50-150 kilograms per cubic meter. Maybe that's why the name of perlite came from the word "pearl" - "pearl" (French).

How good is the material? Perlite is a 100% environmentally friendly product. It includes additives in the form of potassium, sodium, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, which make it possible to successfully use this product in agriculture, especially in regions with infertile lands and arid climate. Agroperlite is used to loosen soils as a supplement to various substrates, and also as a substance that retains up to 600% of water from its own weight, which reduces the amount of watering. Perlite for plants is used in such a direction of agriculture as hydroponics. When we eat some, for example, Dutch vegetables or berries (strawberries), then we do not guess that they were grown not in the ground, but in the containers where the nutrient solution was fed. And partly these containers were filled with perlite.

Perlite makes various filters, as well as sorbents, which have high absorbency and are therefore used to remove stains of oil liquids from water surfaces, purify waste discharges, improve the quality of drinking water and even localize radionuclides in the soil. In addition, the materials made of it make it possible to produce vacuum-free isolation of cryogenic blocks, including in metallurgy for air separation into nitrogen and oxygen.