What Is Potassium Silicate?

In layman terms, Potassium Silicate is simply silica sand that has been solubilized in water through a chemical process. This is accomplished by reacting the sand with a source of Potassium and subsequently dissolving it in water.

When potassium silicate solution dries, the silica precipitates out in a microcrystalline form that tends to become water insoluble with time. This makes it useful as a binder in paint. Such paints are typically referred to as Silicate Mineral Paints or Silicate Paints in short. During the drying of the paint film, potassium silicate fuses with the mineral pigments, fillers and also the mineral surface it is being applied on (commonly plaster, concrete, stone or brick) to bind everything together in an extremely weather durable matrix (See our article on “Durability of Silicate Mineral Paints”). Zydex Silicate Mineral Paints employ potassium silicate as the main binder for unsurpassed durability.