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Sodium Chloride
*** Shopping-Tip: Sodium Chloride
:''For sodium in the diet, see
Edible salt.''
{| class="toccolours" border="1" style="float: right; clear: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse: collapse;"
! {{chembox header}} | {{PAGENAME}}
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| align="center" colspan="2" bgcolor="#ffffff" |
Image:Halite(Salt)USGOV.jpg 150px|Sodium Chloride
|-
! {{chembox header}} | General
|-
|
IUPAC nomenclature Systematic name
| Sodium chloride
|-
| Other names
| Common salt,
halite,
table salt
|-
|
Chemical formula Molecular formula
|
Sodium NaChlorine Cl
|-
|
Molar mass
| 58.44 g/mol
|-
| Appearance
| White or colourless
solid or liquid
|-
|
CAS registry number CAS number
| [7647-14-5]
|-
! {{chembox header}} | Properties
|-
|
Density and
Phase (matter) phase
| 2.16 g/cm
3, solid
|-
|
Soluble Solubility in
Water_(molecule) water
| 35.9 g/100 ml (25 °C)
|-
|
Melting point
| 801 °C (1074 K)
|-
|
Boiling point
| 1465 °C (1738 K)
|-
! {{chembox header}} | Structure
|-
|
Coordination geometry Coordination
geometry
| Octahedral
|-
|
Crystal structure
|
Cubic_crystal_system face centered cubic
|-
! {{chembox header}} | Hazards
|-
|
Material safety data sheet MSDS
|
{{PAGENAME}} (data page)#Material Safety Data Sheet External MSDS
|-
| Main
Worker safety and health hazards
| Irritant and Might Sting
|-
|
NFPA 704
| {{nfpa|1|0|0}}
|-
|
Flash point
| Non-flammable
|-
|
Risk and Safety Statements R/S statement
|
List of R-phrases R: none
List of S-phrases S: none
|-
|
RTECS number
| VZ4725000
|-
! {{chembox header}} |
{{PAGENAME}} (data page) Supplementary data page
|-
|
{{PAGENAME}} (data page)#Structure and properties Structure and
properties
|
Refractive index ''n'',
Dielectric constant εr, etc.
|-
|
{{PAGENAME}} (data page)#Thermodynamic properties Thermodynamic
data
| Phase behaviour
Solid, liquid, gas
|-
|
{{PAGENAME}} (data page)#Spectral data Spectral data
|
UV/VIS spectroscopy UV,
Infrared spectroscopy IR,
NMR spectroscopy NMR,
Mass spectrometry MS
|-
! {{chembox header}} | Related compounds
|-
| Other
Ion anions
|
Sodium fluoride NaF,
Sodium bromide NaBr,
Sodium iodide NaI
|-
| Other
Ion cations
|
Lithium chloride LiCl,
Potassium chloride KCl,
Rubidium chloride RbCl,
Caesium chloride CsCl,
Magnesium chloride MgCl2,
Calcium chloride CaCl2
|-
| Related
salts
|
Sodium acetate
|-
| {{chembox header}} |
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for
materials in their standard state standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa)
wikipedia:Chemical infobox Infobox disclaimer and references
|-
|}
'''Sodium chloride''', also known as '''common salt''', '''table salt''', or
halite, is a
chemical compound with the
chemical formula formula Sodium NaChlorine Cl.
Sodium chloride is the
salt most responsible for the salinity of the
ocean and of the
extracellular fluid of many multicellular
organisms. As the main ingredient in
edible salt, it is commonly used as a
condiment and food
preservative.
Crystal structure
Image:NaCl-estructura cristalina.svg 200px|thumb|left|The crystal structure of sodium chloride. Each atom has six nearest neighbors, with octahedral geometry.
Sodium chloride forms
crystals with cubic
symmetry. In these, the larger
Chlorine chloride ions, shown to the left as green spheres, are arranged in a cubic
close-packing, while the smaller
sodium ions, shown to the left as (blue spheres, fill the octahedral gaps between them.
Each ion is surrounded by six of the other kind. This same basic structure is found in many other
minerals, and is known as the
halite structure. This arrangement is known as ''cubic close packed'' (ccp).
It is held together with an
ionic bond and
electrostatic forces
Biological importance
Sodium chloride is essential to
life on
Earth. Most
biological tissues and
body fluids contain a varying amount of salt. The concentration of
sodium ions in the
blood is directly related to the regulation of safe body-fluid levels. Propagation of
nerve impulses by
signal transduction is regulated by sodium
ions. (
Potassium, a
metal closely related to Sodium, is also a major component in the same bodily systems).
0.9% sodium chloride in
water is called a ''physiological solution''
because it is
isotonic with
blood plasma. It is known medically as
normal saline. Physiological solution is the mainstay of
fluid replacement therapy that is widely used in
medicine in prevention or treatment of
dehydration, or as an
intravenous therapy to prevent
hypovolemia hypovolemic shock due to
blood loss.
Humans are unusual among
primates in secreting large amounts of salt by
sweating.
Salt throughout history
: ''See main article:
History of salt''
Salt's preservative ability was a foundation of
civilization. It eliminated dependency on the seasonal availability of food and allowed travel over long distances. By the
Middle Ages,
caravans consisting of as many as forty thousand
camels traversed four hundred miles of the
Sahara bearing salt, sometimes trading it for
Slavery slaves.
In religion
There are thirty-two references to salt in the
Bible, the most familiar probably being the story of
Lot (biblical) Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when she disobeyed the
Angel angels and looked back at the wicked city of
Sodom (
Genesis 19:26).
Jesus also referred to his followers as the "salt of the earth" (
Matthew 5:13), a reference to salt's great value in the ancient world. Most of the time when talking about salt, the Bible is speaking of wisdom or age and wisdom combined.
In the native Japanese religion
shinto, salt is seen as "pure" and can be used to purify (bless) locations and people, such as in
Sumo Wrestling.
Production and use
Image:Dead-Sea---Salt-Evaporation-Ponds.jpg Jordan.html"_title="Meaning of thumb thumb|right|[[Jordanian_and
Israeli salt evaporation ponds at the south end of the
Dead Sea.html" title="Meaning of right|[[Jordan">thumb|right|[[Jordanian and
Israeli salt evaporation ponds at the south end of the
Dead Sea">right|[[Jordan">thumb|right|[[Jordanian and
Israeli salt evaporation ponds at the south end of the
Dead Sea
Image:Salt mine 0096.jpg Mount Morris, New York.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|right|Modern rock salt mine near [[Mount Morris, New York.html" title="Meaning of right|Modern rock salt mine near [[Mount Morris, New York">thumb|right|Modern rock salt mine near [[Mount Morris, New York">right|Modern rock salt mine near [[Mount Morris, New York">thumb|right|Modern rock salt mine near [[Mount Morris, New York
Nowadays, salt is produced by
evaporation of
seawater or
brine from other sources, such as brine wells and
salt lakes, and by
salt mine mining '''rock salt''', called
halite.
While most people are familiar with the many uses of salt in
cooking, they might be unaware that salt is used in a plethora of applications, from
manufacturing pulp and paper to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, to producing
soaps and
detergents. In most of Canada and the northern USA, large quantities of rock salt are used to help clear highways of ice during winter, although "Road Salt" loses its melting ability at temperatures below -15°C to -20°C (5°F to -4°F).
Salt is also the raw material used to produce
chlorine which itself is required for the production of many modern materials including
Polyvinyl chloride PVC and
pesticides.
{| class="toccolours" border="1" style="margin: 1em; border-collapse: collapse;"
! {{chembox header}} | Solubility of NaCl in various solvents
(g NaCl / 100 g of solvent at 25°C)
|-
|
Water (molecule) H2O || 36
|-
|
Ammonia Liquid ammonia || 3.02
|-
|
Methanol || 1.4
|-
|
Formic acid || 5.2
|-
|
Sulfolane || 0.005
|-
|
Acetonitrile || 0.0003
|-
|
Acetone || 0.000042
|-
|
Formamide || 9.4
|-
|
Dimethylformamide || 0.04
|-
| align="center" colspan="2" | Reference:
Burgess, J. ''Metal Ions in Solution''
(Ellis Horwood, New York, 1978)
ISBN 0853120277
|}
Flavor enhancer
{{main|Edible salt}}
Salt is commonly used as a
flavor enhancer for
food and has been identified as one of the
basic tastes. Unfortunately, given its history, this has resulted in large sections of the developed world ingesting salt massively in excess of the required intake, particularly in colder climates where the required intake is much lower. This causes elevated levels of
blood pressure in some, which in turn is associated with increased risks of
myocardial infarction heart attack and
stroke.
Biological uses
Many
microorganisms cannot live in an overly salty environment: water is drawn out of their
cell (biology) cells by
osmosis. For this reason salt is used to
Food preservation preserve some foods, such as smoked bacon or fish. It has also been used to disinfect wounds. In
medieval times salt would be rubbed in to household surfaces as a cleansing agent.
Image:SaltMounds.jpeg thumb|right|Mounds of salt
De-icing
While salt was a scarce commodity in history, industrialised production has now made salt plentiful. About 51% of world output is now used by cold countries to
Deicing de-ice roads in winter, see
Grit bin. This works because salt and water form a
eutectic mixture that has about a 10°
Celsius C lower
freezing point than pure water (see
Freezing-point depression): the ions prevent regular ice crystals from forming (below −10°C salt will not prevent water from freezing). Concerns are arising that this use may be harmful to the environment though, and, in
Canada, norms were developed to minimize the use of salt in de-icing.
Additives
The salt sold for consumption today is not pure sodium chloride. In
1911 Magnesium carbonate was first added to salt to make it flow more freely. In
1924 trace amounts of
iodine in form of sodium iodide, potassium iodide or potassium iodate were first added, creating iodized salt to reduce the incidence of simple
Goitre goiter.
Other facts
Image:SEM sodium chloride crystal (300x).jpg scanning electron microscope thumb|An [[scanning electron microscope|SEM image of a salt crystal.html" title="Meaning of SEM.html" title="Meaning of thumb|An [[scanning electron microscope|SEM">thumb|An [[scanning electron microscope|SEM image of a salt crystal">SEM.html" title="Meaning of thumb|An [[scanning electron microscope|SEM">thumb|An [[scanning electron microscope|SEM image of a salt crystal
*Salty
soil is generally unfit for
agriculture, hence the practice of
salting the earth.
*The superstition that spilling salt brings bad luck is said to have originated with the overturned salt cellar in front of
Judas Iscariot at the
Last Supper, immortalised in
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper (Leonardo) famous painting.
*Due to its high
concentration of salt, the
Dead Sea has such a high
density that some objects which are not normally buoyant can float on its surface.
Humans float easily, having a density slightly less than that of pure water. (Only 8% of the salt in the Dead Sea is sodium chloride; 53% is magnesium chloride, 37% is potassium chloride.)
*The cities of
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati,
Detroit, Michigan Detroit and
Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson are on top of active
salt mines.
*The
Nazi Germany Third Reich stored vast amounts of money, paintings and artworks in salt mines, and many important documents and items continue to be stored in former salt mines to this day. Salt mines are also used to store
nuclear waste.
See also
{{cookbookpar|Salt}}
{{Commons2|Salt}}
*
Biosalinity
*
Black salt
*
Edible salt
*
Salinity
*
Soap
External links
-
Salt Institute website
-
Salt Archive website
-
Video of rotating rock salt unit cell (divx, 378kb)
-
Salt United States Geological Survey Statistics and Information
Category:Chlorides
Category:Sodium compounds
Category:Edible salt
Category:Metal halides
Category:Salts
Category:Granular materials
Category:Condiments
Category:Preservatives
Category:Antiseptics
bg:Ð?атриев хлорид
ca:Clorur sòdic
cy:Halen
da:Natriumklorid
de:Natriumchlorid
et:Naatriumkloriid
es:Cloruro sódico
fr:Chlorure de sodium
ko:염화 나트륨
hr:Kuhinjska sol
it:Cloruro di sodio
la:Natrii Chloridum
lv:NÄ?trija hlorÄ«ds
hu:Nátrium-klorid
nl:Keukenzout
nds:NaCl
ja:塩化ナトリウãƒ
pl:Chlorek sodu
pt:Cloreto de sódio
ru:Хлорид натриÑ?
sk:Chlorid sodný
sr:КухињÑ?ка Ñ?о
sv:Natriumklorid
th:โซเดียมคลà¸à¹„รด์
vi:Clorua natri
zh:氯化é’
see
Sodium chloride
*** Shopping-Tip: Sodium Chloride