How do you extract sodium from table salt (at home)?

Answer 1

You need to construct a Down's cell. This is something that could be done but there are other problems.

Sodium chloride melts at about 800C. This will mean that you have chlorine coming off the anode at 800C and vaporized sodium coming off the cathode at 800C.

To say the least, sodium vapor is highly reactive. You would have to collect and cool the sodium very quickly and keep it away from oxygen and water.

This is not the sort of thing that you should try in the garage if you want to live with all your present body parts.

Answer 2

I remember seeing this at school. You need inverted Nickle test tubes packed with salt and a Platinum electrode in the middle but not touching the metal then heat the whole contraption until the salt melts on a Meker burner, (hotter than a Bunsen). Electrolyse for several minutes then allow to air cool completely.

The problem is that at the temperature that salt melts any Sodium produced spontaneously ignites in air.

Answer 3

Is the second experiment to find out which kills you first the reaction of the sodium with water in the atmosphere or the chlorine gas. (It'd probably be the chlorine).

There really isn't a practical way to do this at home. You could displace the sodium with a more reactive metal such as pottasium or you could use electrolysis . However if these were occuring in solution you would get reaction of the sodium with water to form NaOH .

Answer 4

its easy, just put salt in a steel dish and heat the bottom with one or two blow torches until the salt becomes molten

then put two electrodes in the molten salt, use ones that can withstand the heat and dont let them touch the metal dish

hook the electrodes up to a car battery or a plug cut off an old appliance

once your torches are out of fuel just collect the sodium off whichever electrode it has gathered on

good luck, just dont breathe in the chlorine

Answer 5

It can be, depending on which sea salt you purchase. Look for natural unprocessed sea salt, however it will not look as nice as the processed sea salt. Cleaning sea salt will improve the appearance and remove many of the beneficial trace minerals. This makes it more like mined salt and at a much higher price.

Answer 6

heat it up to 700 degrees C (its probably best to do this in the garden) then pass an electric current through it the sodium with gather on the cathode; just when all the molten salt has gone pluck it out and have a play (best keep it away from water)

Good Luck, and please wear saftey specs and have the fire department on speed dial

Answer 7

Electrolysis won't work- you get chlorine released at the anode (most of which will initially re-dissolve in solution). You need to MELT the NaCl then electrolyse, which I think is what Faraday did. Not practical on a domestic scale!

Answer 8

You would need equipment that you could not afford, nor that would be practical for home use. Besides, sodium metal is extremely dangerous because it is explosive when it comes in contact with water.

Answer 9

mmm i do not like the sound of this type of chemistry. Once you split out the sodium, what are you going to do with the chlorine? die painfully? i do hope not. be careful of that, even if the Cl is only there in an intermediate step.

also sodium is very reactive stuff and wants to make friends with any chemicals it sees round about; it will do so violently if it gets the chance.

which is probably why you're trying to do it. Behave.

Answer 10

Well you will produce either sodium, chlorine or both doing this. They are both very dangerous so I wouldn't try this outside of a lab with a fume cupboard