Sodium - General Properties, Where It Comes From, How The Metal Is Obtained, How We Use It
element atomic chemical symbol
The chemical element of atomic number 11. Symbol Na, atomic weight 22.9898, specific gravity 0.97, melting point 208°F (97.8°C), boiling point 1,621.4°F (883°C).
Sodium is the second element in group 1 of the periodic table. Its chemical symbol reflects its Latin name of natrium. The element was first isolated by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1807. Only one stable isotope of sodium exists in nature, sodium-23. However, at least six radioactive isotopes have been prepared synthetically. They include sodium-20, sodium-21, sodium-22, sodium-24, sodium-25, and sodium-26.
Additional Topics
Sodium is a soft metal that can be cut easily with a table knife. Its density is so low that it will float when placed into water. At the same time, the metal is so active that it reacts violently with the water, producing sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas as products. Sufficient heat is produced in the reaction to cause the metal to heat and to ignite the hydrogen produced in the reaction. Freshl…
Sodium is the sixth most common element in the Earth's crust with an estimated abundance of 2.83%. It is the second most abundant element in sea water after chlorine. One point of interest is that, although the abundance of sodium and potassium is approximately equal in crustal rocks, the former is 30 times more abundant in sea water than is the latter. The explanation for this difference l…
The isolation of sodium from its compounds long presented a problem for chemists because of the element's reactivity. Electrolysis of a sodium chloride solution will not produce the element, for example, because any sodium produced in the reaction will immediately react with water. The method finally developed by Sir Humphry Davy in the early nineteenth century has become the model on which…
Sodium metal has relatively few commercial uses. The most important is as a heat exchange medium in fast breeder nuclear reactors. A heat exchange medium is a material that transports heat from one place to another. In the case of a nuclear reactor, the heat exchange medium absorbs heat produced in the reactor core and transfers that heat to a cooling unit. In the cooling unit, the heat is release…
Sodium chloride is the most widely used sodium compounds. Due to its availability and minimal amount of preparation, there is no need for it to be manufactured commercially. A large fraction of the sodium chloride used commercially goes to the production of other sodium compounds, such as sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, sodium sulfate, and sodium metal itself. For many centuries, sodium chlori…
As described above, sodium reacts violently with water and with oxygen to form sodium hydroxide and sodium oxide, respectively. The element also reacts vigorously with fluorine and chlorine, at room temperature, but with bromine and iodine only in the vapor phase. At temperatures above 392°F (200°C), sodium combines with hydrogen to form sodium hydride, NaH, a compound that then deco…
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