Sodium
Tyler Regitz
History
Sodium was discovered in 1807 by Humphrey Davy. In the Royal Intuition in London. Davy took naOH and put it in an electric current and got some globules of sodium as a metal. Davy had the symbol of sodium which is a circle with two lines in it surround by spikes representing how reactive it is.
Identifying Information
Atomic Number- 11
Mass Number- 23
Protons- 11
Neutrons- 12
Electrons-11
You can find it on the periodic table above potassium next to magnesium and below lithium.
Properties
Atomic Mass- 22.989770
Atomic radius- 190pm
Density- .968 g/cc
Melting Point- 97.72
Boiling Point- 883 Celsius
At room temperature it is a solid. It is a soft metal. When exposed to air it turns white and when in water it reacts violently.
Sodium has high reactivity.
Applications and Uses
Sodium itself is not use for a lot. But in liquid form It can be use as a heat exchanger in some nuclear reactors. When combined with Chlorine it becomes salt. It can be found in the earths crust and also in the ocean. Salt is used to add flavor to our food and also can be used to defrost roads.
Work Cited
- Gray, Theodore W. (2008). The Photographic Card Deck of the Elements.
- Gray, Theodore W. (2009). The Elements: A visual exploration of every known atom in the universe. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc.