Sodium chloride-what is it?
We see salt everywhere; in restaurants, at home, in supermarkets etc. But what is salt? Well the scientific name for salt is sodium chloride. And as the name suggest, salt is made of sodium and chloride. The ratio between the two substances are 1:1 in other words equal parts. This supports the fact that salt is a compound. As seen in the diagram on the "compounds and elements" page and as mentioned compounds are made of different elements that are chemically bonded. In the case of sodium chloride, the sodium atom and the chlorine atom is chemically bonded together through ionic which will be further discussed later on. In addition, compounds have a fixed ratio which is evident in sodium chloride since it is composed of an equal ratio (1:1 ratio) of sodium and chlorine. If I was to write out the chemical formula of sodium chloride it would be NACl and equation would be: NA + Cl → NA+Cl- (Williams, 2016).
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Physical properties
Sodium chloride also known as table salt is the result of the bonding of sodium and chlorine. Sodium chloride appears as a solid, clear/transparent crystal with little or no odor although when eaten it has a distinctive salty taste. It’s boiling point is 1465 degrees celsius and its melting point is 800 degrees celsius (Unknown, 2016).
Chemical properties-compound-sodium chloride
Sodium chloride is an ionic compound that is readily soluble in water and insoluble or only slightly soluble in most other liquids (Unknown, 2015). As the name suggest sodium chloride is composed of sodium and chlorine. Sodium chlorine does not undergo combustion, meaning that it does not react with oxygen and does doesn’t give off heat.
Evaluation of properties
Have you ever wondered why salt is soluble in water? How could a solid possibly dissolve in water? This is due to salts chemical properties and water’s chemical property. We know that salt is composed of chlorine and sodium. These two atoms bond to created salt through ionic bonding, and as mentioned before this leaves chlorine with a negative charge/ anion and sodium with a positive charge/cation. On the other hand, water has bonded through a “hydrogen bond” (Ernest.Z, 2016). This is when the slight positive charges on the hydrogen atoms in a water molecule attract the slight negative charges on the oxygen atoms of other water molecules. So now that the salt is in the water the positive atoms/the sodium is attracted to “slight negative charges in oxygen, therefore the sodium separates from the chlorine and dissolves in water. Chlorine on the other hand is attracted to the slight positives/the hydrogen (Ernest.Z, 2016). This is based on the fact that “opposites attract”. To connect this to the particle model, we can say that the composition and bonding of the 2 atoms in the compound sodium chloride makes salt soluble in water, and because of its chemical property (it is composed of chlorine and sodium) it is able to dissolve in water.