Talk:Sodium

nuclear reactor cooling

I strongly disagree with the wording of this paragraph. "Other uses" is not the place to talk about accidents or undocumented nuclear safety. I would just mention some examples of sodium cooled reactors like Monju (where the mentioned accident happened) in Japan or Phénix and Superphénix in France. --Zakatan (talk) 12:46, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Occurences

I changed "different ['different what']" to "different minerals". I also changed "salt" to "halite". Eldin raigmore (talk) 20:48, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

That was because of 19:49, 16 December 2011‎ 66.219.235.208 (talk)‎ (36,866 bytes) (→Occurence: needs clarification, [Sodium] is found in many different, .... (different what?)). Eldin raigmore (talk) 21:00, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Biological role of sodium

There is an error in the section on the biological role of sodium.

It states that the DRI for sodium is 1.5g per day. That is the DRI for those over 50, or with medical conditions such as hypertension. The DRI for the population that doesn't fall into these categories is 2.3g per day. See reference 49

It is also stated that the average American consumes 2.3g of sodium per day. The average amount is actually 3.4g per day. See reference 49 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tgiesler (talk • contribs) 20:47, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Done! Thanks! --Stone (talk) 23:39, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Sodium-collecting butterflies

Is that going to get included in the article? See this link, which even gives three papers to reference. Double sharp (talk) 03:57, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Commercial Production Section error

From the article: "Downs Cell in which the NaCl is mixed with calcium chloride to lower the melting point below 700 °C. As calcium is less electropositive than sodium, no calcium will be formed at the anode. This method is less expensive than the previous Castner process of electrolyzing sodium hydroxide."

Two problems -

1. Reactive metal production is at the cathode, not the anode. Chlorine is produced on the anode.

2. Calcium is not the thermodynamically favored product; however, it is still produced (at the cathode). This requires a post production filtration and will result in trace calcium impurity in the finished sodium product.

A more correct statement for the article is: "Downs Cell in which the NaCl is mixed with calcium chloride to lower the melting point below 700 °C. As calcium is less electropositive than sodium, less calcium will be co-produced at the cathode. Despite post production filtration to reduce the calcium concentration to commercially acceptable level, this method is less expensive than the previous Castner process of electrolyzing sodium hydroxide." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Darkmatterguy (talk • contribs) 02:23, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Burning

"Sodium will also burn violently when heated in air." - links as a cite to some sales site for metals. No mention on there that I can see of sodium burning violently in air. Almost just seems like an ad link. Contrast that to: http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/011.2/ where he has a video of some sodium he ignited w/ the help of a blowtorch. "In this video we used a propane torch to light about 10 grams of it in a bowl, to see how it would burn. It burns sort of like magnesium, but easier to light. Sodium burning in air is very gentle, slow, controlled."

So, yeah, question the fact. Wonder if it is just ad link spam. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.50.78.21 (talk • contribs) 15:18, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

I agree that the claim is questionable and not supported by the cited reference so I have removed the statement. Thanks for catching the problem and reporting it here. If you would like to add a different statement based on the theodoregray.com reference, please feel free to do so. -- Ed (Edgar181) 15:18, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Cool. Thanks. As for adding references. Well, this is a semi-protected article, sooo, would have to register which, I'm disinclined to do, frankly. I like the fact that wikipedia allows anyone to edit it, and apart from occasional pain in attempting to correct a misleading image or two (there's still one or two of those I made little progress in), I'll just stick w/ my boring old IP. Feel free to add the cite to Theodore's site yourself tho :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.50.78.21 (talk) 18:09, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Clarification

Current text on physical properties:

Sodium at standard temperature and pressure is a soft metal that can be readily cut with a knife and is a good conductor of electricity. Freshly exposed, sodium has a bright, silvery luster that rapidly tarnishes, forming a white coating of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate. These properties[which?] change at elevated pressures: at 1.5 Mbar, the color[clarification needed] changes to black, then to red transparent at 1.9 Mbar, and finally clear transparent at 3 Mbar. All of these allotropes are insulators and electrides.[3]

The properties that change with pressure are the ones in the first sentence, not the second. Also, tarnishing in air is a chemical property, not a physical property. I suggest the following revision:

Sodium at standard temperature and pressure is a soft, silvery metal that can be readily cut with a knife, and is a good conductor of electricity. These properties change dramatically at elevated pressures: at 1.5 Mbar, the color changes from silvery metallic to black; at 1.9 Mbar the material becomes transparent, with a red color; and at 3 Mbar sodium is a clear and transparent solid. All of these high-pressure allotropes are insulators and electrides.[3]

When freshly cut, sodium has a bright, silvery luster. If exposed to air, the surface rapidly tarnishes, darkening at first and then forming a white coating of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate.

68.173.52.158 (talk) 11:42, 7 April 2014 (UTC)