Indiana University researchers have created a powerful new molecule for the extraction of salt from liquid. The work has potential to help increase the amount of drinkable water on Earth.
Materials Science
May 23, 2019
3
264
The nanoscale water channels that nature has evolved to rapidly shuttle water molecules into and out of cells could inspire new materials to clean up chemical and pharmaceutical production. KAUST researchers have tailored ...
Materials Science
May 09, 2019
0
7
An international team of researchers at Institute for Molecular Science in Japan and Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Germany has revealed an ion transport mechanism of sodium/proton antiporter by simulating its motion. ...
Biochemistry
Apr 18, 2019
0
5
Micro-encapsulated CO2 sorbents (MECS)—tiny, reusable capsules full of a sodium carbonate solution that can absorb carbon dioxide from the air—are a promising technology for capturing carbon from the atmosphere. To create ...
General Physics
Apr 17, 2019
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88
Researchers at Missouri S&T have found an unprecedented, economical method for creating high-performance inorganic thin films, or "epitaxial" films, used in the manufacture of semiconductors for flexible electronics, LEDs ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 12, 2019
0
183
Washington State University researchers have found a way to make food taste salty but with less of the sodium chloride tied to poor health.
Other
Apr 11, 2019
3
8
Mountain Gorilla conservation in Rwanda is a great success story. A number of extreme conservation measures – like daily monitoring and protection, veterinary interventions and controlled ecotourism – have enabled the ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 03, 2019
2
45
A University of Maryland-led team of researchers has created a heat-to-electricity device that runs on ions and which could someday harness the body's heat to provide energy.
Materials Science
Mar 25, 2019
1
436
A trio of chemists at Okayama University has published a paper in the journal Nature Catalysis outlining the manner in which sodium can be safely used for cross-coupling reactions. In their paper, Sobi Asako, Hirotaka Nakajima ...
Three people were taken to hospital following a chemical spill at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation facility at Lucas Heights this morning.
Materials Science
Mar 01, 2019
0
10
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.
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