What are sodium features?
sodium is a soft, burst metal element, which is the sixth most abundant element in nature on the ground, where it is combined in various types of salt compounds from sodium chloride, NaCl, sodium hydroxide, naoh. The element was discovered by Sir Humphrey crowds, a well -known British chemist, in 1807, and initially questioned whether it was metal, because one of the sodium features is that it is less dense than other metals and so soft that it can be easily cut with a knife. Sodium metal is also highly reactive with water and the flame breaks out in the air and releases hydrogen gas in an exothermic reaction that can cause explosions in a limited environment. Laboratories usually store clean metal on the bottom of the glasses of kerosene glasses to prevent contact with liquid water or distracted atmospheric moisture.
sodium chemical properties include th -threshingness that it is very reactive with many types of other elements and compounds, including most metal hallsOgenides, ammonia and hydrogen. However, it responds only weakly with carbon and not with nitrogen or inert gases at all, such as Xenon and Argon. This makes it useful component such as steam in sodium steam lights, which are highly efficient light sources that do not show a decrease in light production as they age. Because one of the sodium properties is that it has a low melting point of 208 ° Fahrenheit (98 ° Celsius) and is not reactive with steel, it is used as liquid cooling agents for nuclear reactors for submarines. These reactors are known as fast liquid metal reactors (LMFR) and offer high -performance power for their small size, while sodium coolant eliminates the need for a high -pressure retention container on such ships.
The physical properties of sodium metal classify it in the alkaline family of chemical elements, which include other light metals such as potassium, lithium and cesium. These are highly reactive metals that are freely binding in nature with other elements, so sodium is present in various podoBách, which are widely used in medicine and agriculture. While sodium chloride, NaCl, is the second oldest dissolved mineral in seawater, sodium carbonate, on 2 sub> 3 , is found in limestone and is most often mined by red humanity, which is used at least 1370 BC. Because one of the main features of sodium is that it is a light metal that is actually less dense than water, making it a useful tracing element that emits a weak level of radioactive decay in the form of sodium-22 isotopes and sodium-24. These isotopes are used in medical imaging and also to monitor leaks in buried pipes that transport oil and other industrial compounds.
Another use of sodium is its role of important element of nutrition for humans, animals and plants. It is also widely used to produce organic materials such as soap and sodium hypochlorby the disinfectant. Sodium is also used to increase the properties of metal alloys and serve as a good conductor of electricity, where it can reduce electricity consumption in neon lighting.