Sodium and Potassium - Comparison - Properties

This article contains comparison of key thermal and atomic properties of sodium and potassium, two comparable chemical elements from the periodic table. It also contains basic descriptions and applications of both elements. Sodium vs Potassium.

sodium and potassium - comparison

Compare sodium with another element

Compare potassium with another element

Sodium and Potassium – About Elements

Sodium

Sodium is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table, because it has a single electron in its outer shell that it readily donates, creating a positively charged atom—the Na+ cation.

Potassium

Potassium was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name derives. In the periodic table, potassium is one of the alkali metals. All of the alkali metals have a single valence electron in the outer electron shell, which is easily removed to create an ion with a positive charge – a cation, which combines with anions to form salts. Naturally occurring potassium is composed of three isotopes, of which 40K is radioactive. Traces of 40K are found in all potassium, and it is the most common radioisotope in the human body.

Sodium in Periodic Table

Potassium in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Sodium and Potassium – Applications

Sodium

Metallic sodium is used mainly for the production of sodium borohydride, sodium azide, indigo, and triphenylphosphine. A once-common use was the making of tetraethyllead and titanium metal; because of the move away from TEL and new titanium production methods. An electric current and sodium vapor combine to form a yellowish glow. This principle is used for the making of sodium vapor lamps. Sodium is occasionally used as a heat exchange medium in nuclear power plants. Liquid sodium is sealed into pipes surrounding the reactor core. Generated heat is absorbed by sodium and forced through the pipes in a heat exchanger which can be used to generate electricity.

Potassium

Potassium (K) is an essential nutrient for plant growth. It’s classified as a macronutrient because plants take up large quantities of K during their life cycle. Agricultural fertilizers consume 95% of global potassium chemical production, and about 90% of this potassium is supplied as KCl. Due to its high degree of reactivity, pure potassium is rarely used in its elemental /metallic form. It is used as a powerful reducing agent in organic chemistry. Potassium/Sodium alloys are It used as a heat exchange medium . The heat in the potassium warms water and makes it hot enough to boil. Then water is changed into steam, which is used to work devices that generate electricity.

Sodium and Potassium – Comparison in Table

Element	Sodium	Potassium
Density	0.968 g/cm3	0.856 g/cm3
Ultimate Tensile Strength	N/A	N/A
Yield Strength	N/A	N/A
Young’s Modulus of Elasticity	10 GPa	3.53 GPa
Mohs Scale	0.4	0.4
Brinell Hardness	0.69 MPa	0.36 MPa
Vickers Hardness	N/A	N/A
Melting Point	97.8 °C	63.25 °C
Boiling Point	883 °C	760 °C
Thermal Conductivity	141 W/mK	102.4 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	71 µm/mK	83 µm/mK
Specific Heat	1.23 J/g K	0.75 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	2.598 kJ/mol	2.334 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	96.96 kJ/mol	79.87 kJ/mol