Sodium

Sodium /ˈsoʊdiəm/ is a chemical element with symbol Na (from Greek Νάτριο) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silver-white, highly reactive metal. In the Periodic table it is in column 1 (alkali metals), and like the other six elements in that column, it has a single electron in its outer shell that it readily donates, creating a positively charged atom — a cation. Its only stable isotope is Na. The free metal does not occur in nature, but 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 rock salt (NaCl). Many salts of sodium are highly water-soluble: sodium ions have been leached by the action of water from the Earth's minerals over eons; sodium and chlorine are the most common dissolved elements by weight in the oceans.