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Concept
Sodium chloride
Summary
Sodium chloride ˌsoʊdiəm_ˈklɔraɪd, commonly known as salt (although sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of seawater and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms. In its edible form, salt (also known as table salt) is commonly used as a condiment and food preservative. Large quantities of sodium chloride are used in many industrial processes, and it is a major source of sodium and chlorine compounds used as feedstocks for further chemical syntheses. Another major application of sodium chloride is deicing of roadways in sub-freezing weather.
In addition to the familiar domestic uses of salt, more dominant applications of the approximately 250 million tonnes per year production (2008 data) include chemicals and de-icing.
Salt is used, directly or indirectly, in the production of many chemicals, which consume most of the world's production.
Chloralkali process
It is the starting point for the chloralkali process, the industrial process to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide, according to the chemical equation
2 NaCl + 2 H2O ->[electrolysis] Cl2 + H2 + 2 NaOH
This electrolysis is conducted in either a mercury cell, a diaphragm cell, or a membrane cell. Each of those uses a different method to separate the chlorine from the sodium hydroxide. Other technologies are under development due to the high energy consumption of the electrolysis, whereby small improvements in the efficiency can have large economic paybacks. Some applications of chlorine include PVC thermoplastics production, disinfectants, and solvents.
Sodium hydroxide is extensively used in many different industries enabling production of paper, soap, and aluminium etc.
Sodium chloride is used in the Solvay process to produce sodium carbonate and calcium chloride. Sodium carbonate, in turn, is used to produce glass, sodium bicarbonate, and dyes, as well as a myriad of other chemicals.
Official source
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Related concepts (58)
Salt
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially at table in ground form in dispensers, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or halite. Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food, including otherwise unpalatable food.
Ion
An ion (ˈaɪ.ɒn,_-ən) is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convention. The net charge of an ion is not zero because its total number of electrons is unequal to its total number of protons. A cation is a positively charged ion with fewer electrons than protons while an anion is a negatively charged ion with more electrons than protons.
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 metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isotope is 23Na. The free metal does not occur in nature and must be prepared from compounds. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and exists in numerous minerals such as feldspars, sodalite, and halite (NaCl).