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Sodium and Silicon – Comparison – Properties

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

sodium and silicon - comparison

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Sodium and Silicon – 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.

Silicon

Silicon is a hard and brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, it is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor.

Sodium in Periodic Table

Silicon in Periodic Table

Source: www.luciteria.com

Sodium and Silicon – 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.

Silicon

Most silicon is used industrially without being purified, and indeed, often with comparatively little processing from its natural form. Silicon is a vital ingredient in aluminum, steel, and iron alloys. It is added as a fluxing agent for copper alloys. In the form of clay and sand, it is used to manufacture bricks and concrete; it is a valuable refractory material for high-temperature work, for example, molding sands for castings in foundry applications. Silica is used to make fire brick, a type of ceramic. Silicate minerals are also in whiteware ceramics, an important class of products usually containing various types of fired clay minerals (natural aluminium phyllosilicates). An example is porcelain, which is based on the silicate mineral kaolinite. Traditional glass (silica-based soda-lime glass) also functions in many of the same ways, and also is used for windows and containers. Hyperpure silicon metal and doped hyperpure silicon (doping with boron, phosphorous, gallium, or arsenic) are used in solar cells, transistors and semiconductors.

Sodium and Silicon – Comparison in Table

Element Sodium Silicon
Density 0.968 g/cm3 2.33 g/cm3
Ultimate Tensile Strength N/A 170 MPa
Yield Strength N/A 165 MPa
Young’s Modulus of Elasticity 10 GPa 150 GPa
Mohs Scale 0.4 7
Brinell Hardness 0.69 MPa 2300 MPa
Vickers Hardness N/A N/A
Melting Point 97.8 °C 1410 °C
Boiling Point 883 °C 3265 °C
Thermal Conductivity 141 W/mK 148 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient 71 µm/mK N/A
Specific Heat 1.23 J/g K 0.71 J/g K
Heat of Fusion 2.598 kJ/mol 50.55 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization 96.96 kJ/mol 384.22 kJ/mol