Sodium is one of the elements that you may be familiar with hearing about.
If you like to cook, you have probably seen it in ingredient lists, such as salt.
But sodium is also used in many other things.
This article will provide an overview of sodium, its properties, characteristics and how it is used in society.
Contents
Properties and characteristics of Sodium
Despite being a metal, sodium is soft enough to be cut with a knife. Preservation is done in oil, as it reacts violently when put in water, catching fire and exploding.
*Sodium is not found in nature as a single substance due to its high activity.
How Sodium is used in society
Sodium is used as an ingredient in ‘salt’, ‘sodium lamps’ and ‘bleach agent’.
Let’s look at each of these.
Sodium is useful for “salt”
Salt is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word sodium. The correct name is sodium chloride (NaCl), which is an important nutrient essential for sustaining human life and has been used throughout the world since ancient times.
Incidentally, sodium is also used in baking powder as sodium bicarbonate (NahCO3) in food products, so you may be surprised to see it.
Sodium is useful “sodium vapor lamp ”
Have you ever seen yellow-orange-ish lights in a tunnel?
That is actually a sodium lamp. These sodium lamps have the property of reaching far into the fog, which helps if visibility is reduced in a tunnel.
Sodium is useful for “bleaching agent”
Liquid bleach uses the ingredient sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl).
This has strong bleaching power and is used, for example, to remove black stains in bathrooms. Although sometimes misunderstood, sodium percarbonate (Na2CO3-1.5H2O2) is contained in powdered bleach, which is a different product used to soak clothes.
History of Sodium
Chemical symbol: Na
English name: Sodium
The original name is said to have come from the Latin ‘natron’ meaning ‘sodium carbonate’. (One theory is that it comes from the German word ‘natron’, meaning ‘soda stone’.)
So why not ‘Natlium’ in English?
That’s because the English name “Sodium” comes from the Arabic word “Soda” (sodium carbonate). I know it’s confusing.
Summary
In this article, we have explained about Sodium.
The key points of this article are as follows.
- Sodium is a metal, but soft enough to cut with a knife.
- Stored in oil because it reacts violently with water.
- Used in ‘salt’, ‘sodium lamps’, ‘bleach’, etc.
- English names and elemental symbols are not corresponded.
If you are interested in other elements, the following article summarizes them. Please take a look.
