Energy & Green Tech
The transition to a society without fossil fuels means that the need for batteries is increasing at a rapid pace. At the same time, the increase will mean a shortage of the metals lithium and cobalt, which are key components ...
Dec 13, 2023
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Energy & Green Tech
Cars that burn petrol and diesel must be replaced with renewable alternatives if the climate crisis is to be overcome. Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely viewed as the best option available.
Oct 11, 2023
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Energy & Green Tech
Flexible aqueous batteries, such as those used in portable electronics, often contain a hydrogel electrolyte containing water and salt. Using a chemical modification inspired by nature, a team of Chinese researchers have ...
Oct 5, 2023
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53
Machine learning & AI
Can artificial intelligence (AI) get hungry? Develop a taste for certain foods? Not yet, but a team of Penn State researchers is developing a novel electronic tongue that mimics how taste influences what we eat based on both ...
Oct 4, 2023
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Engineering
UC Riverside chemical engineers have designed a fuel that ignites only with the application of electric current. Since it doesn't react to flames and cannot start accidental fires during storage or transport, it is a "safe" ...
Sep 28, 2023
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Energy & Green Tech
Picture this: you're cruising down the Great Ocean Road in your brand new electric vehicle (EV), the ocean to your left and the wind in your hair. But what if I told you this idyllic drive could turn into a nightmare, with ...
Sep 28, 2023
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Engineering
Scientists have developed a new method that converts seawater into drinking water that could be useful in disaster zones where there is limited electrical power.
Sep 21, 2023
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Energy & Green Tech
Lithium is becoming the new gold, with rocketing use in lithium-ion batteries in electric cars, computers, and portable devices driving up the price and affecting the supply of the relatively rare metal. Scientists are on ...
Jul 13, 2023
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Engineering
Worldwide, glass manufacturing produces at least 86 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. A new type of glass promises to cut this carbon footprint in half. The invention, called LionGlass and engineered by researchers ...
Jul 3, 2023
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534
Robotics
Most robotic grippers are made using either soft plastics—to pick up objects without damaging them—that melt at high temperatures, or metals which are stiff and costly. A team of researchers from the National University ...
Jun 28, 2023
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Sodium (pronounced /ˈsoʊdiəm/) is a metallic element with a symbol Na (from Latin natrium or Arabic natrun) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" (formerly known as ‘group IA’). It has only one stable isotope, 23Na.
Elemental sodium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1806 by passing an electric current through molten sodium hydroxide. Elemental sodium does not occur naturally on Earth, but quickly oxidizes in air and is violently reactive with water, so it must be stored in an inert medium, such as a liquid hydrocarbon. The free metal is used for some chemical synthesis and heat transfer applications.
Sodium ion is soluble in water in nearly all of its compounds, and is thus present in great quantities in the Earth's oceans and other stagnant bodies of water. In these bodies it is mostly counterbalanced by the chloride ion, causing evaporated ocean water solids to consist mostly of sodium chloride, or common table salt. Sodium ion is also a component of many minerals.
Sodium is an essential element for all animal life and for some plant species. In animals, sodium ions are used in opposition to potassium ions, to allow the organism to build up an electrostatic charge on cell membranes, and thus allow transmission of nerve impulses when the charge is allowed to dissipate by a moving wave of voltage change. Sodium is thus classified as a “dietary inorganic macro-mineral” for animals. Sodium's relative rarity on land is due to its solubility in water, thus causing it to be leached into bodies of long-standing water by rainfall. Such is its relatively large requirement in animals, in contrast to its relative scarcity in many inland soils, that herbivorous land animals have developed a special taste receptor for sodium ion.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
