The main industrial uses of sodium metal are:
(1) as a reducing agent. It is used to reduce metals such as titanium, zirconium, niobium, and tantalum that are important in the defense industry from their molten halides. China’s production level is very backward.
(2) as a chemical raw material. It is used to produce sodium-butadiene rubber, sodium hydride, sodium peroxide, sodium cyanide, and sodium carbonate and other sodium-containing compounds. It has a wide range of uses: such as food, biology, pharmaceuticals, rubber, leather, chemical industry, fire protection, ceramics, glass, water treatment and other industries. This is the largest part of the industrial application of sodium, and there are advantages and disadvantages in both Chinese and foreign levels.
(3) Manufacture of alloys. Alloy of sodium and mercury, sodium amalgam, used as a reducing agent in organic synthesis. Sodium-lead alloy, used in the production of gasoline antiknock agent. Sodium-potassium alloy, used as a coolant and heat exchanger in nuclear reactors. China’s related technical level is relatively low, except for some sodium amalgam, it basically relies on imports.
(5) As an electric light source. The yellow light of sodium vapor has strong fog permeability, and high-pressure sodium lamps made of sodium are widely used in highway lighting. However, high-quality sodium lamps are also mostly devil products.
(6) An isotope of sodium. Na-24 is radioactive and is used for radiotracer analysis in biological research. Due to its short half-life, it is not harmful to the human body.
Metallic sodium has a considerable part of the metal sodium used to make an antiknock agent, tetraethyl lead, which reduces the knocking performance of gasoline and reduces the noise that occurs when gasoline engines use gasoline. Tetraethyl lead is usually produced by reacting chloroethane with metallic sodium and lead (sodium lead): 4C2H5Cl 4Na Pb = (C2H5) 4Pb 4NaCl
Metallic sodium can replace them from compounds of metallic elements such as titanium, zirconium, niobium, and tantalum.
For example: TiCl4 4NaTi 4NaCl, niobium and tantalum are usually symbiotic in a certain mineral. Generally, their fluoride is separated first, and then the niobium and tantalum are replaced with sodium metal.
Such as: NbF5 5Na = Nb 5NaCl; TaF5 5Na = Ta 5NaCl
Alloys composed of sodium and potassium are liquid at room temperature and have good thermal conductivity. They are often used in fast breeder reactors as heat exchange fluids, that is, thermal conductivity agents. Sodium is also used to make compounds such as sodium peroxide.
High-pressure sodium lamps are now widely used in the lighting of roads and squares. Since it does not reduce the level of illumination and can reduce energy consumption, there is a trend to replace high-pressure mercury lamps. As early as 1950, the problem of gas discharge luminescence of sodium vapor was solved in the laboratory, but due to the need to solve the problem of strong corrosiveness of sodium vapor at high temperature and high pressure, it was not until 1965 that the first high-pressure sodium lamp was made. Although high-pressure sodium lamps came out later, they developed rapidly.
Sodium lamps can also be used in darkrooms where phase washing is done, because this yellow light does not expose the photo paper.
