![]() Metallic sodium is used in the manufacture of sodamide and esters, and in the preparation of organic compounds. Explosions occur when the heat generated by the sodium-water reaction ignites the resulting hydrogen gas. Sodium reacts with water more vigorously than lithium and less vigorously than potassium. It also reacts vigorously with water – violently if more than a small amount of sodium meets water (see video on left) – to produce sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Sodium floats on water, because its density is lower than water’s. Sodium burns in air with a brilliant yellow flame. It is soft enough to cut with the edge of a coin.įreshly cut surfaces oxidize rapidly in air to form a dull, oxide coating. Contact with the skin may, however, cause irritation and burns. What happens when 20,000 lb of sodium meets a lake? The same salt could cover all the land on Earth to a depth of almost 500 feet (150 m). If all the sodium chloride (table salt) in the oceans could be extracted and dried, it would cover the entire surface of the USA to a depth of almost a mile and a half (about 2.3 km).(The neon atoms were themselves produced by carbon atoms coming together in nuclear fusion reactions.) Sodium is produced in heavy stars, mainly when atoms of neon gain a proton.Heat cramping is caused by the loss of sodium ions when salt is removed from the body in sweat. An immediate effect of low sodium can be seen in heat cramping, when athletes’ muscles seize up after exertion. Humans and other animals need sodium to maintain the correct fluid balance in their cells.The commercially available 78% K, 22% Na alloy stays liquid at temperatures as low as -12.6 oC (9.3 oF). NaK alloys containing 10 to 60 percent of sodium by weight are liquids at room temperature. Sodium and its close periodic table neighbor potassium are solids at room temperature. ![]() It’s possible this page could have been titled ‘Sodagen.’ This is the name Sir Humphry Davy gave the new metallic element in his laboratory notebook, before deciding he preferred ‘Sodium.’ (5).Jacob Berzelius preferred the shorter natrium, from which we get the chemical symbol for sodium, Na. Gilbert suggested the new element should be called natronium. ![]() In Germany caustic soda was known as natronlauge and L. ![]() He named the new metal sodium, because he had used caustic soda or, more simply, soda, as his source of the element. “…for amongst the metals themselves there are remarkable differences in this respect, platina being nearly four times as heavy as tellurium.” He asked whether the new substance should be classed as a metal and noted that most other scientists thought it should, despite the fact that its density was much lower than the other metals then known: “It is exceedingly malleable and is much softer than any of the common metallic substances… this property does not diminish when it is cooled to 32 oF (0 oC).”ĭavy also noted that, when added to water, sodium decomposed the water, releasing hydrogen. The electrolysis was powered by the combined output of three large batteries he had built.ĭavy noted that the metal which formed at the wire electrode he placed in the sodium hydroxide was a liquid, but became solid on cooling and “appeared to have the lustre of silver.” (1) In 1807, at the Royal Institution, London, a few days after isolating potassium for the first time, he isolated sodium for the first time by electrolysis of dried sodium hydroxide, which had been very slightly moistened. In 1806 Sir Humphry Davy discovered that chemical bonding was electrical in nature and that he could use electricity to split substances into their basic building blocks – the chemical elements. ![]()
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