Sodium, this neutral atom with a loosely-held outermost electron, is now in the presence of water. This isn't just the neutral H2O molecules, but the hydroxyl ions and the individual protons.

In its pure form, the soft, shiny metal reacts in water to form sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Oh, and lots of heat—enough that the hydrogen gas ignites. That’s the flash and bang for you.

Fuel cells that react liquid sodium metal with air could be the power source required to give electric airplanes much longer ranges, a new paper has proposed. The idea has yet to leave the ...

Discover how MIT’s sodium fuel cell innovation could revolutionize electric aviation with higher energy density and ...

Alone, it's explosive. Combined with chlorine, it's table salt. When mixed with water, sodium reacts spectacularly. The combination produces sodium hydroxide, hydrogen gas and heat (the technical ...

Small pieces of calcium are placed in water. The calcium reacts with the water but does not get nearly as hot as either the sodium or potassium. Also, the calcium hydroxide produced forms a white ...

Sodium reacts with oxygen and water to produce NaOH, which liquefies and drips off the cathode. After the reactions consume the liquid sodium, you would simply swap out the fuel cell or its fuel ...

Sodium metal reacts very strongly with water. (You may have seen videos where blocks of sodium metal get thrown into a lake, to dramatic effect). Asked about this issue, ...

Their answer is to react liquid metal sodium in a fuel cell with oxygen from the air. “We expect people to think that this is a totally crazy idea,” Chiang said in a statement .