Essays
Topics
preview

The Importance of Sodium

Good Essays
Open Document
Have you ever wondered why sodium is so important in our day to day lives? Sodium is one fo the top 5 most commonly used chemical compounds in our surroundings. When you close this page you will know everything about sodium!
Atomic Structure:
The periodic symbol for sodium is (Na), it’s atomic number is 11 and the mass number for sodium is 22.99, however this can be rounded to 23. In an atom of sodium there are 11 protons, protons are small subatomic particles that have positive charge. There are 11 electrons and 12 neutrons. Electrons are the similar to protons, however they have a negative charge, not positive. Neutrons are another subatomic particle that does not have an electric charge. The electron configuration of sodium is 2, 8 and 1 and the nuclear charge is 11, this is because sodium had 11 protons.

Sodium the element:
As shown diagram 2, sodium is a metal. This means it can form a bond by bonding metalically, bonding covalently will not work because only non-metals can form covalent bonds.

Metallic bonding:
Metals form giant structures in which electrons can move freely in the outer shell. The metallic bonding is the power of attraction between these free electrons and metal ions. Sodium is an extremely malleable metal with a silver colour which can be cut with a knife at room temperature. The boiling and melting points are considerably high at 883C for boiling and 97.72C for the melting point. Sodium is also a very good conductor of electricity. Sodium is a metal therefore it doesn’t form covalent bonds, only non-metals can for covalent. The “sea of electrons” is electrons that can move without restrictions within the molecular orbitals, so each electron detaches from its “parent” atom. The atoms are most ...

... middle of paper ...

...fFCCPQ&ust=1394715920801085 [Accessed: 10 Mar 2014].
LIVESTRONG.COM. 2014. Do We Need Sodium to Live? | LIVESTRONG.COM. [online] Available at: http://www.livestrong.com/article/446573-do-we-need-sodium-to-live/ [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014].
Ptable.com. 2014. Dynamic Periodic Table. [online] Available at: http://ptable.com/ [Accessed: 15 Mar 2014].
Studios, A. 2014. Chem4Kids.com: Sodium: Bond With It. [online] Available at: http://www.chem4kids.com/files/elements/011_comps.html [Accessed: 3 Mar 2014].
TheFreeDictionary.com. 2014. metallic bond. [online] Available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/metallic+bond [Accessed: 7 Mar 2014].
Uses Of. 2014. Uses of Sodium | Uses Of. [online] Available at: http://www.usesof.net/uses-of-sodium.html [Accessed: 15 Mar 2014].
Wikipedia. 2014. Sodium. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium [Accessed: 3 Mar 2014].
Get Access
Related
Get Access