What kind of metal is sodium

Sodium is the sixth most common element on Earth, and makes up 2. The most common compound is sodium chloride. It is also found in many minerals including cryolite, zeolite and sodalite. Because sodium is so reactive it is never found as the metal in nature. Sodium metal is produced by electrolysis of dry molten sodium chloride.

Help text not available for this section currently. Elements and Periodic Table History. Salt sodium chloride, NaCl and soda sodium carbonate, Na 2 CO 3 had been known since prehistoric times, the former used as a flavouring and preservative, and the latter for glass manufacture.

Salt came from seawater, while soda came from the Natron Valley in Egypt or from the ash of certain plants. Their composition was debated by early chemists and the solution finally came from the Royal Institution in London in October where Humphry Davy exposed caustic soda sodium hydroxide, NaOH to an electric current and obtained globules of sodium metal, just as he had previously done for potassium, although he needed to use a stronger current.

Atomic data. Glossary Common oxidation states The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom. Oxidation states and isotopes. Glossary Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey. Relative supply risk An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk. Recycling rate The percentage of a commodity which is recycled.

Substitutability The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. Reserve distribution The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves. Political stability of top producer A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators.

Supply risk. Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance. Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material.

Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Sodium Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Sodium, like most elements in the periodic table could be said to have a dual personality.

On one side it is an essential nutrient for most living things, and yet, due to its reactive nature is also capable of wreaking havoc if you happen to combine it with something you shouldn't. As such sodium is found naturally only in compounds and never as the free element.

Even so it is highly abundant, accounting for around 2. Its most common compounds include dissolved sodium chloride or table salt , its solid form, halite and as a charge balancing cation in zeolites. Aside from being an essential nutrient, the story of man and sodium is said to begin all the way back in the time of the Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt, with the first recorded mention of a sodium compound in the form of hieroglyphics.

It is difficult to describe a pictogram through speech but imagine a squiggly line over the top of a hollow eye-shape, over the top of a semicircle, with a left-facing vulture image next to them all. This pictogram meant divine or pure and its name is the root of the word natron, which was used to refer to washing soda, or sodium carbonate decahydrate, as we would know it today.

Sodium carbonate was used in soap, and also, in the process of mummification thanks to its water absorbing and bacteria killing pH control properties. In medieval Europe, however, sodium carbonate was also used as a cure for headaches, and so took the name sodanum, from the Arabic suda, meaning headache. It was this terminology that inspired Sir Humphrey Davy to call the element sodium when he first isolated it by passing an electric current through caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, in This process is known as electrolysis and using it Davy went on to isolate elemental potassium, calcium, magnesium and barium by a very similar method.

Chemistry teachers often confuse children when they tell them about chemical symbols. Whilst ones like H, N, C and O all seem perfectly logical, abbreviating sodium to Na seems counterintuitive at first. However, if we consider the word natron, we can see where the abbreviated form came from. When isolated in metallic form, silvery white sodium is a violent element, immediately oxidising upon contact with air, and violently producing hydrogen gas which may burst into flame when brought into contact with water.

It is one of the highly reactive group one elements that are named the alkali metals. Like the other alkali metals, it has a very distinctive flame test - a bright orange colour, from the D-line emission. This is something you will have seen in all built up areas in the form of street lamps, which use sodium to produce the unnatural yellow light bathing our streets.

This effect was first noted in by Kirchoff and Bunsen of Bunsen Burner fame. Almost all young chemists will have done a flame test at some point, and sodium chloride is a popular choice. Unfortunately, the intensity of the colour is such that if any of the compound is spilled into the Bunsen burner, it is cursed to burn with a blue and orange speckled flame seemingly forever.

The reaction of sodium with water is a favourite demonstration, and clips of it abound on the internet. Sodium and its compounds have applications so diverse it would be impossible to mention them all here, a couple of examples include the fact that sodium is used to cool nuclear reactors, since it won't boil as water would at the high temperatures that are reached.

Sodium hydroxide can be used to remove sulfur from petrol and diesel, although the toxic soup of by-products that is formed has led to the process being outlawed in most countries.

Sodium hydroxide is also used in biodiesel manufacture, and as a key component in products that remove blockages from drains. Baking soda actually contains sodium it's in the name! It is as an ion, however, that sodium really becomes important. An average human being has to take in around two grams of sodium a day - and virtually all of this will be taken in the form of salt in the diet. Sodium ions are used to build up electrical gradients in the firing of neurons in the brain.

This involves sodium and its big brother potassium diffusing through cell membranes. Sodium diffuses in and is pumped back out, while potassium does the reverse journey. This can take up a huge amount of the body's energy - sometimes as much as 40 per cent.

I'd like to end with a brief story which highlights the dual personality of sodium. One man bought three and a half pounds of sodium metal from the internet and spent the evening reacting it with water in various shapes and sizes whilst he and his friends watched from a safe distance. The party was apparently a success, but he doesn't suggest hosting your own. The following day when the host came outside to check the area where he detonated the sodium was clear, he noticed that it was covered in swarms of yellow butterflies.

After doing some research, he found that these butterflies had an interesting habit. The males search for sodium and gradually collect it, presenting it to their mates later as a ritual. So, that sums up the two faces of sodium. Its violent reactive nature contrasted with its use by amorous butterflies. That was Southampton university's David Read with the two faced chemistry of sodium. Now next week, the chemical equivalent of train spotting. It's easy to accuse the scientists who produce new, very heavy elements of being chemistry's train spotters.

Just as train spotters spend hours watching for a particular locomotive so they can underline it in their book, it may seem that these chemists laboriously produce an atom or two of a superheavy element as an exercise in ticking the box.

But element has provided more than one surprise, showing why such elements are well worth investigating. And to find out why element is worth the effort join Brian Clegg in next week's Chemistry in its element. Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld.

Click here to view videos about Sodium. View videos about. Help Text. Learn Chemistry : Your single route to hundreds of free-to-access chemistry teaching resources. We hope that you enjoy your visit to this Site. 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. Contact of sodium with water, including perspiration causes the formation of sodium hydroxide fumes, which are highly irritating to skin, eyes, nose and throat.

This may cause sneezing and coughing. Very severe exposures may result in difficult breathing, coughing and chemical bronchitis. Contact to the skin may cause itching, tingling, thermal and caustic burns and permanent damage. Contact with eyes may result in permanent damage and loss of sight. Sodium's powdered form is highly explosive in water and a poison combined and uncombined with many other elements.

Environmental fate: this chemical is not mobile in solid form, although it absorbs moisture very easily. Once liquid, sodium hydroxide leaches rapidly into the soil, possibly contaminating water sources. Metals are good conductors of heat and electricity, and are malleable they can be hammered into sheets and ductile they can be drawn into wire.

Most of the metals are solids at room temperature, with a characteristic silvery shine except for mercury, which is a liquid. Nonmetals are usually poor conductors of heat and electricity, and are not malleable or ductile; many of the elemental nonmetals are gases at room temperature, while others are liquids and others are solids. The metalloids are intermediate in their properties.

In their physical properties, they are more like the nonmetals, but under certain circumstances, several of them can be made to conduct electricity. These semiconductors are extremely important in computers and other electronic devices.

On many periodic tables, a jagged black line see figure below along the right side of the table separates the metals from the nonmetals.

The metals are to the left of the line except for hydrogen, which is a nonmetal , the nonmetals are to the right of the line, and the elements immediately adjacent to the line are the metalloids. When elements combine to form compounds, there are two major types of bonding that can result. Ionic bonds form when there is a transfer of electrons from one species to another, producing charged ions which attract each other very strongly by electrostatic interactions, and covalent bonds , which result when atoms share electrons to produce neutral molecules.

In general, metal and nonmetals combine to form ionic compounds , while nonmetals combine with other nonmetals to form covalent compounds molecules. Since the metals are further to the left on the periodic table, they have low ionization energies and low electron affinities , so they lose electrons relatively easily and gain them with difficulty.