Many of us gained our first appreciation for chemistry upon witnessing a high school teacher drop a chunk of sodium into a beakerful of water. You may think you know the explanation behind the ...

In this video excerpt from NOVA's "Hunting the Elements," New York Times technology columnist David Pogue investigates chemical reactions involving sodium. Find out how the electron configuration of ...

Click the play button on the video above, and you’ll see a piece of sodium leaping over and over to get its (metaphoric) toes out of the water. It looks like a cute little experiment — but it’s not ...

Chemical reactions make new chemicals. Atoms are rearranged during a chemical reaction, but the number of atoms does not change. Evidence of chemical reactions includes a large temperature change, ...

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are emerging as a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries, thanks to sodium’s abundance and low cost, but their true charging speed remains uncertain due to ...

An acid and alkali will neutralise each other and produce a salt and water. This is called a neutralisation reaction. The name of the salt produced can be worked out from the names of the acid and the ...

Leavening agents rarely attract attention beyond the moment a cake rises or fails, yet their chemistry shapes texture, ...

Transition metals have long been used as catalysts to activate small molecules and turn them into valuable products. However, as these metals can be expensive and less abundant, scientists are ...

Researchers at Tokyo University of Science showed that sodium-ion batteries with hard carbon anodes can charge faster than lithium-ion batteries by using a diluted electrode method that reveals sodium ...

With the world’s reserves of light oil diminishing, oil companies are increasingly turning to heavier varieties – which make up 70% of global oil reserves – to meet rising energy demands. Existing ...