‘Element of the Week’ – Sodium: Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin natrium) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive alkali metal. Its only stable isotope is sodium-23. Free sodium does not occur in nature; it is found in minerals and dissolved salts, and sodium and chlorine are among the most common dissolved elements in seawater.

Some properties include:

• Atomic Weight = 22.9898 (u)
• Density = 0.97 (g/cm³)
• Electronegativity = 0.93
• Fusion Heat = 2.60 (kJ/mol)
• Specific Heat Capacity = 1.228 J/(g·K)
• Vaporization Heat = 97.42 (kJ/mol)
• Element Group = Alkali Metals
• Year Identified = 1807
• Discoverer = Humphry Davy

Sodium compounds are used in food, glassmaking and chemical manufacturing. The intense yellow light produced by excited sodium atoms is also used in some street lamps.

The name comes from soda, while the symbol Na is derived from the Latin name natrium.

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Element data: Atomic-Shared-Data (English element dataset).