This experiment shows how reactive sodium is.
Baking soda is made up of sodium, carbon and oxygen.
Today I"m going to explain background information on sodium and common compounds formed with sodium. .
The history of sodium began a long time ago, in 1807, when it was isolated by Sir Humphry Davy by electrolysis of solid sodium hydroxide.
It is the fourth most abundant element on earth, compromising about 2.6% of the earths crust. Sodium however is never found free in nature, just like most reactive metals, and is a soft bright, silvery metal, which floats on water.
Sodium is a common metal and is used in many household products including table salt (sodium chloride) and baking soda.
Sodium is pictured here with its periodic table symbol.
Sodium silicates are used as fillers for salt and in detergents. Sodium hydroxide is used in the manufacture of paper, soap, rayon, in oil refining, and in the textile and rubber industries. Sodium tetraborate is known as .
borax, and sodium fluoride is used as an antibiotic, rat poison and in ceramics.
Trona is the ore for sodium. It was formed millions of years ago by lakes becoming dry because of the changing climate, and the near by mountains continued to supply sodium alkaline earth and bicarbonate to the lakes. Since the rate of evaporation was high, the clear waters changed to brines that finally precipitated a sodium carbonate/sodium bicarbonate known as the mineral trona or sesquicarbonate. Trona or sodium sesquicarbonate is the form in which this group of chemicals is most frequently found.
Sodium today is still extracted from the sodium compounds by using electrolysis. Since extraction from the metal ore involves reduction of the metal,.
electrons can reduce any metal. The negative electrode, called the cathode,.
will attract positively charged metal ions. The metal ions collect electrons from the cathode and are discharged as metal atoms. The positive electrode, called the anode, will attract negatively charged non-metal ions.