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Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isotope is 23 Na. The free metal does not occur in nature and must be prepared from compounds. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and exists in numerous minerals such as feldspars, sodalite, and halite (NaCl).
Sodium atoms have 11 electrons, one more than the stable configuration of the noble gas neon. As a result, sodium usually forms ionic compounds involving the Na + cation. [1] Sodium is a reactive alkali metal and is much more stable in ionic compounds. It can also form intermetallic compounds and organosodium compounds.
The chemical elements can be broadly divided into metals, metalloids, and nonmetals according to their shared physical and chemical properties.All elemental metals have a shiny appearance (at least when freshly polished); are good conductors of heat and electricity; form alloys with other metallic elements; and have at least one basic oxide.
While most metals form arsenides, only the alkali and alkaline earth metals form mostly ionic arsenides. The structure of Na 3 As is complex with unusually short Na–Na distances of 328–330 pm which are shorter than in sodium metal, and this indicates that even with these electropositive metals the bonding cannot be straightforwardly ionic. [10]
The metal is hard and brittle at most temperatures but becomes malleable between 100 and 150 °C (212 and 302 °F). [9] ... zinc, sodium, and many other metals ...
Metals are typically malleable and ductile, deforming under stress without cleaving. [10] The nondirectional nature of metallic bonding contributes to the ductility of most metallic solids, where the Peierls stress is relatively low allowing for dislocation motion, and there are also many combinations of planes and directions for plastic ...
Nonmetals show more variability in their properties than do metals. [1] Metalloids are included here since they behave predominately as chemically weak nonmetals.. Physically, they nearly all exist as diatomic or monatomic gases, or polyatomic solids having more substantial (open-packed) forms and relatively small atomic radii, unlike metals, which are nearly all solid and close-packed, and ...
It is lustrous, malleable and ductile, and has high electrical and thermal conductivity. Like most metals it has a close-packed crystalline structure, [422] and forms a cation in aqueous solution. [423] It has some properties that are unusual for a metal; taken together, [424] these are sometimes used as a basis to classify aluminium as a ...