LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Sodium: Sodium Hydroxide
built 607 days ago
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a very important laboratory reagent and a widely used industrial chemical. Called caustic soda, it is very corrosive to the skin. It is used in the manufacture of soap, the refining of petroleum, the manufacture of paper, textiles, rayon, cellulose film, and many other products.
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Sodium is a metallic element designated by the symbol Na, from Latin natrium. It is a soft whitish alkali metal that is extremely reactive; like its close cousin potassium it oxidizes quickly and reacts violently with water, liberating potentially flammable hydrogen and forming hydroxide. Hence sodium must be stored away from air and water and handled with care.
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Sodium hydroxide (NaOH)... known as [L]ye, caustic soda and sodium hydrate, is a caustic metallic base. Caustic soda forms a strong alkaline solution when dissolved in a solvent such as water. It is used in many industries, mostly as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents and as a drain cleaner. Worldwide production in 1998 was around 45 million tonnes. Sodium hydroxide is the most used base in chemical laboratories.
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Sodium, like every reactive element, is never found free in nature. Sodium is a soft, bright, silvery metal which floats on water. Decomposition in water results in the evolution of hydrogen and the formation of the hydroxide. It may or may not ignite spontaneously on water, depending on the amount of oxide and metal exposed to the water. It normally does not ignite in air at temperatures below 115
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Sodium hydroxide has ... been used in conjunction with zinc for creation of the famous "Gold pennies" experiment. When a penny is boiled in a solution of NaOH together with some granular zinc metal (galvanized nails are one source), the color of the penny will turn silver in about 45 seconds. The penny is then held in the flame of a burner for a few seconds and it turns golden. The reason this happens is that granular zinc dissolves in NaOH to form Zn(OH)42- (tetrahydroxozincate). This zincate ion becomes reduced to metallic zinc on the surface of a copper penny. Zinc and copper when heated in a flame form brass.
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Sodium hydroxide is used to manufacture soaps, rayon, paper, explosives, dyestuffs, and petroleum products. It is ... used in processing cotton fabric, laundering and bleaching, metal cleaning and processing, oxide coating, electroplating, and electrolytic extracting. It is commonly present in commercial drain and oven cleaners.
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Sodium Hydroxide