 Discovery Information |
| Who:
Sir Humphrey Davy
|
| When: 1807 |
| Where: England |
|
| Name Origin |
| From soda; Na from Latin natrium. |
|
| Sources |
| Obtained by electrolysis of melted sodium chloride (salt), borax and cryolite. |
|
| Uses |
| Used in medicine, agriculture and photography. Liquid sodium is sometimes used to cool nuclear reactors. Also used in street lights, soap, batteries, table salt (NaCl), and glass. |
|
| Notes |
| Sodium comes from the English word "soda" and from mideval Latin sodanum which means headache remedy. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element on earth comprising 2.6% of the earth's crust. It is the most abundant of the
alkali metals
. It never exists in nature, but is prepared by electrolysis of absolutely dry fused sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is common table salt which is important in animal nutrition. Other important forms of sodium are soda ash(Na2CO3), baking soda (NaHCO3), Chili saltpeter (NaNO3) which is sodium nitrate. In nature sodium is found in soda niter, cryolite, amphibole and zeolite. |
| Sodium is highly reactive (burns with a yellow flame), it reacts violently with water. Sodium floats on water. |
