Sodium is what kind of metal

Long considered as white gold, and the key to preserving food from one harvest to another, salt sodium chloride is its best-known form. Although some of its compounds have been known since antiquity, it was not until that the Cornish chemist Sir Humphry Davy managed to obtain sodium in its pure form.

Highly reactive, sodium is part of multiple reactions. Among many other useful sodium compounds, sodium hydroxide is used in soaps manufacture, and sodium chloride is a de-icing agent and nutrient for humans and animals. Sodium carbonate is another example used in the manufacture of glass, pharmaceuticals, soaps, and detergents. It is produced in large quantities from two natural resources, salt sodium chloride and limestone, by a breakthrough industrial process invented in by Ernest Solvay himself!

The Solvay process produced a sodium bicarbonate of high purity. Skip to content. Our Company. About Solvay. Sodium carbonate has long been known to be a good CO 2 absorber, Vericella said, but it's slower than amine solutions.

With encapsulation, however, the surface area for absorption increases, to times that of a normal steel-mesh tower with amine solution. As a result, the reaction speeds up. Once the capsules absorb their maximum carbon dioxide, they are heated and the CO 2 removed for sequestration. The capsules can then be reused. The researchers reported their findings Feb. The next step, Vericella said, is to scale up. So far, they've tested the microcapsules in test-tube quantities.

It will take many more to tackle the global problem of CO 2 emissions. Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science covering topics from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. A freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, she also regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Live Science. But sodium metal was not prepared until The reason is that sodium attaches itself very strongly to other elements. Its compounds are very difficult to break apart. It was not until that English chemist Sir Humphry Davy found a way to extract sodium from its compounds. See sidebar on Davy in the calcium entry in Volume 1.

Sodium metal itself has relatively few uses. It reacts with other substances easily, sometimes explosively. However, many sodium compounds have many uses in industry, medicine, and everyday life. Sodium carbonate, or soda Na 2 CO 3 , was probably the sodium compound best known to ancient peoples. It is the most common ore of sodium found in nature. This explains why glass was one of the first chemical products made by humans. Glass is made by heating sodium carbonate and calcium oxide lime together.

When the mixture cools, it forms the hard, clear, transparent material called glass. Glass was being manufactured on a large scale in Egypt as early as B. The Egyptians called soda natron. Much later, the Romans used a similar name for the compound, natrium.

These names explain the chemical symbol used for sodium, Na. The name sodium probably originated from an Arabic word suda, meaning "headache. The word suda also carried over into Latin to become sodanum, which also means "headache remedy. In the early s, Davy found a way to extract a number of active elements from their compounds. Sodium was one of these elements.

Davy's method involved melting a compound of the active element, then passing an electric current through the molten melted compound. Davy used sodium hydroxide NaOH to make sodium. Sodium is a silvery-white metal with a waxy appearance. It is soft enough to be cut with a knife.

The surface is bright and shiny when first cut, but quickly becomes dull as sodium reacts with oxygen in the air. A thin film of sodium oxide Na 2 O forms that hides the metal itself. Sodium's melting point is Its density is slightly less than that of water, 0. Sodium is a good conductor of electricity. Sodium is a very active element. It combines with oxygen at room temperature.

When heated, it combines very rapidly, burning with a brilliant golden-yellow flame. Sodium also reacts violently with water.

See accompanying sidebar. It is so active that it is normally stored under a liquid with which it does not react. Kerosene or naphtha are liquids commonly used for this purpose. Sodium also reacts with most other elements and with many compounds. It reacts with acids to produce hydrogen gas.

It also dissolves in mercury to form a sodium amalgam. An amalgam is an alloy of mercury and at least one other metal. Sodium never occurs as a free element in nature. It is much too active. It always occurs as part of a compound. The most common source of sodium in the Earth is halite. Halite is nearly pure sodium chloride NaCl. It is also called rock salt. Halite can be found in underground deposits similar to coal mines.

Those deposits were formed when ancient oceans evaporated dried up , leaving sodium chloride behind. Earth movements eventually buried those deposits. Now they can be mined to remove the sodium chloride.

O il and vinegar don't mix. But sodium and water really don't mix! Sodium reacts violently with water. The effect is fascinating.

When sodium metal is first placed into water, it floats. But it immediately begins to react with water, releasing hydrogen gas:. A great deal of energy is released in this reaction. It is enough to set fire to the hydrogen gas. The sodium metal reacts with water.

So much heat is released that the sodium melts. It turns into a tiny ball of liquid sodium. At the same time, the sodium releases hydrogen from water. The hydrogen gas catches fire and causes the ball of sodium to go sizzling across the surface of the water. Sodium chloride can also be obtained from seawater and brine. Brine is similar to seawater, but it contains more dissolved salt.

Removing sodium chloride from seawater or brine is easy. Solid sodium carbonate is needed to make glass. Sodium is, after chloride, the second most abundant element dissolved in seawater. The most important sodium salts found in nature are sodium chloride halite or rock salt , sodium carbonate trona or soda , sodium borate borax , sodium nitrate and sodium sulfate. Sodium salts are found in seawater 1. The production of salt is around million tonnes per year; this huge amount is mainly extracted from salt deposits by pumping water down bore holes to dissolve it and pumping up brine.

The sun and many other stars shine with visible light in which the yellow component dominates and this is given out by sodium atoms in a high-energy state. Sodium is a compound of many foodstuffs, for instance of common salt. It is necessary for humans to maintain the balance of the physical fluids system. Sodium is also required for nerve and muscle functioning. Too much sodium can damage our kidneys and increases the chances of high blood pressure.

Sodium is essential, but controversely surrounds the amount required.