Sodium - Atomic Number 11 Traditional Geocache

This cache is the 8th in a series of 22 hides to be named after chemical elements and placed on Ramsey streets (and sometimes points North) with the same name. The series will speed up the qualification requirements for challenge cache GC2P5TJ, since some already published elements require traveling great distances. The closest cache named Sodium is located in North Carolina, 852 miles Southeast.

History: Until the 18th century no distinction was made between potassium and sodium. This was because early chemists did not recognise that "vegetable alkali" (K₂CO₃, potassium carbonate, coming from deposits in the earth) and "mineral alkali" (Na₂CO₃, sodium carbonate, derived from wood ashes) are distinct from each other. Eventually a distinction was made.

Sodium was first isolated in 1807 by Sir Humphry Davy, who made it by the electrolysis of very dry molten sodium hydroxide, NaOH. Sodium collected at the cathode. Davy isolated potassium by a similar procedure, also in 1807. Shortly after, Thenard and Gay-Lussac isolated sodium by reducing sodium hydroxide with iron metal at high temperatures.

Sodium is one of the elements which has an alchemical symbol, shown below (alchemy is an ancient pursuit concerned with, for instance, the transformation of other metals into gold).

Sources: Sodium is never found as the free element ("native") in nature as it is so reactive. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the earth's crust at about 2.6 - 3.0%. The most common mineral is rock salt (sodium chloride, NaCl, or halite), but it occurs in many other minerals including sodium borate (borax), sodium carbonate (soda), sodium nitrate (Chile saltpetre). and sodium sulphate (thenardite). In those species, however, it is the anions that are the reason for mining.

• sodium metal is used in the preparation of tetraethyl lead, PbEt₄, an important anti-knock reagent in leaded petrol (gasoline) - fortunately being phased out in many countries because of lead pollution problems
• sodium metal is used in the preparation of titanium metal from TiCl₄
• the metal is used in the manufacture of sodamide, sodium cyanide, sodium peroxide, and sodium hydride
• the metal is used in the reduction of organic esters, and in the preparation of organic compounds
• the alloy with potassium, NaK, is an important heat transfer agent and a good chemical reducing agent (as some proportions of Na and K are liquid at room temperature).
• sodium compounds including "common salt" (sodium chloride, NaCl), "soda ash" (sodium carbonate, Na₂CO₃), "baking soda" (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO₃, "bicarb"), and "caustic soda" (sodium hydroxide, NaOH), are important to the paper, glass, soap, textile, petroleum, chemical, and metal industries
• sodium vapour is used in lamps for street lighting
• table salt - don't use too much!