Sodium Chloride
Sodium chloride, also known as salt, common salt, table salt, or halite, is an ionic compound with the formula NaCl. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of the ocean and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms. As the major ingredient in edible salt, it is commonly used as a condiment and food preservative.
[edit] Properties
Thermal conductivity of pure NaCl as a function of temperature has a maximum of 2.03 W/(cm K) at 8 K and decreases to 0.069 at 314 K (41 °C). It also decreases with doping.[3]
[edit] Production and use
Modern rock salt mine near Mount Morris, New York, United States
Salt is currently mass-produced by evaporation of seawater or brine from other sources, such as brine wells and salt lakes, and by mining rock salt, called halite. In 2009, world production was estimated at 260 million metric tons, the top five producers (in million tonnes) being China (60.0), United States (46.0), Germany (16.5), India (15.8) and Canada (14.0).[4]
As well as the familiar uses of salt in cooking, salt is used in many applications, from manufacturing pulp and paper, to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, to producing soaps, detergents, and other bath products. It is the major source of industrial chlorine and sodium hydroxide, and used in almost every industry.
Sodium chloride is sometimes used as a cheap and safe desiccant because it appears to have hygroscopic properties, making salting an effective method of food preservation historically; the salt draws water out of bacteria through osmotic pressure, keeping it from reproducing, a major source of food spoilage. Even though more effective desiccants are available, few are safe for humans to ingest. Solubility of NaCl in various solvents
(g NaCl / 1 kg of solvent at 25 °C)[5] | H2O | 360 | Liquid ammonia | 30.2 | glycerin | 83 | propylene glycol | 71 | Methanol | 14 | Ethanol | 0.65 | 1-propanol | 0.124 | 2-propanol | 0.03 | 1-butanol | 0.05 | 1-pentanol |
[edit] Properties
Thermal conductivity of pure NaCl as a function of temperature has a maximum of 2.03 W/(cm K) at 8 K and decreases to 0.069 at 314 K (41 °C). It also decreases with doping.[3]
[edit] Production and use
Modern rock salt mine near Mount Morris, New York, United States
Salt is currently mass-produced by evaporation of seawater or brine from other sources, such as brine wells and salt lakes, and by mining rock salt, called halite. In 2009, world production was estimated at 260 million metric tons, the top five producers (in million tonnes) being China (60.0), United States (46.0), Germany (16.5), India (15.8) and Canada (14.0).[4]
As well as the familiar uses of salt in cooking, salt is used in many applications, from manufacturing pulp and paper, to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, to producing soaps, detergents, and other bath products. It is the major source of industrial chlorine and sodium hydroxide, and used in almost every industry.
Sodium chloride is sometimes used as a cheap and safe desiccant because it appears to have hygroscopic properties, making salting an effective method of food preservation historically; the salt draws water out of bacteria through osmotic pressure, keeping it from reproducing, a major source of food spoilage. Even though more effective desiccants are available, few are safe for humans to ingest. Solubility of NaCl in various solvents
(g NaCl / 1 kg of solvent at 25 °C)[5] | H2O | 360 | Liquid ammonia | 30.2 | glycerin | 83 | propylene glycol | 71 | Methanol | 14 | Ethanol | 0.65 | 1-propanol | 0.124 | 2-propanol | 0.03 | 1-butanol | 0.05 | 1-pentanol |