- Sodium--I need help for a project

Sodium is a very pretty metal, shiny yellow. Soft as butter is the hardness. You can cut it with a knife. Sodium is very reactive to water and in larger than pea sized is very violent. Sodium is very hard to obtain because it holds on tightly to other atoms and ions, atoms with an electricity charge. Once a small piece of sodium is cut, the shiny yellow becomes dull, because it oxidizes with the oxygen in the air. Do not store sodium in water or moisture, it will burn violently. Store it in kerosine or oils, so water or air will not reach it.

Sodium burns violently in water because:

2Na + 2H20 ----> 2NaOH + H2 gas

Single displacement reaction?

The sodium metal burns from the exothermic heat producing reaction breaking the water molecule by taking the OH from H20 forming a sodium hydroxide, caustic, soapy water and H2 gas, hydrogen gas. Taking the OH from H20 creates so much heat that it burns the sodium in to a bright yellow to lavender flames. This flame color matches with the street lights in San Jose, California. The violence comes from the H2 gas that comes from the water. A load combination reaction occurs when the H2 gas combines with the oxygen in the air to form water, again.

2H2 gas +O2 gas from the air -----> 2H2O water. Heat is released in an hydrogen gas combination reaction.

H2 gas powered cars store H2 gas in a fuel cell, making is safer and better, that car's exhausts is 2 moles of H2O water everytime. It will not be in my life time. I think hydrogen fuel cell powered cars, motorcycles, and maybe bicycles will be the future when the planet gets too warm from burning of fossil fuels.

I have not done the thermochemistry, yet. I might post that for my next publication.

Sodium will never exists on its own, because it is unstable by itself and likes to combine with outer atoms forming salts like sodium chloride and compounds like sodium hydroxide, caustic lye to clean things. We cannot mine sodium as itself. We can mine the salt that contains the sodium ion. We can separate the chloride with electricity, electrolysis at 700 degrees C in a factory. If you have a job there, you have to be very careful with your work and watch others working there for their safety, too. You are making this metal so other factories could make soap and French nuclear reactor could have a cooling fluid. In San Jose, CA, their street lights glow yellow, because of the sodium gas. These are sodium vapor lamps with the K line in the visible spectrum light. Sodium is separated by electrolysis of sodium chloride, salt to very high temperatures at factories, 700 C with calcium chloride.

Surf this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium

Sodium was first separated out of salts by Sir. Humphry Davy in England.

I hope this help. Respect sodium, it is a very reactive metal. On cannot make a sodium bicycle. The sodium is too soft a metal and will react to water in the air. It is only useful for soap making, lighting gases, and French nuclear reactor cooling fluid. It is very risky to transport by truck.