quicklime

quicklime: see calcium oxide.

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lime

 or quicklime or calcium oxide

Inorganic compound, white or grayish white solid, chemical formula CaO, made by roasting limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCO₃) until all the carbon dioxide (CO₂) is driven off. One of the four most important basic chemical commodities, it is used as a refractory, as a flux in steel manufacture, as a CO₂ absorbent, to remove contaminants from stack gases, to neutralize various acids, in pulp and paper, in insecticides and fungicides, in sewage treatment, and in the manufacture of glass, calcium carbide, and sodium carbonate. Adding water to lime yields calcium hydroxide (slaked lime, calcium hydrate, hydrated lime, or caustic lime), which is used in mortar, plasters, cements, whitewash, hide dehairing, and water softening and purification and as a source of other calcium salts.

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quicklime [′kwik‚līm]

(inorganic chemistry)

calcium oxide

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lime

A white or grayish-white caustic substance, calcium oxide, usually obtained by heating limestone or marble at a high temperature; used chiefly in plasters, mortars, and cements. In the past, in many areas along the seacoast where limestone was scarce, seashells were heated to obtain lime. See also hydrated lime, hydraulic lime, mortar, shell lime, slaked lime.