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The Chemical Educator
ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 15
(2010) pp 321-324
Reaction of Sodium with Water Vapor – a Short Marathon Experiment with Somewhat Unexpected Result
Nataša Stavrevska, Vladimir M. Petruševski* and Vladimir Ivanovski
Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences
and Mathematics, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, Arhimedova 5,
PO Box 162,
1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, vladop@pmf.ukim.mk
Received February 8, 2010.
Accepted April 9, 2010.
Published: 31 July 2010
Abstract. Attention was paid to the reaction of sodium with water vapor at room temperature. The reaction lasts for hours, and is an example of a short marathon experiment. The reaction rate appears to be independent of the process duration, thus being in accord with 0th order kinetics. At first, this seems to be inconsistent with some simple chemical reasoning. Two explanations are offered for the differences of the predicted and actual behavior of the system and a decisive experiment was performed to see which explanation is the correct one.
Key Words: Laboratories and Demonstrations; physical chemistry; chemical kinetics; marathon experiments; sodium, water vapor, reaction of; 0th order kinetics
(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: vladop@pmf.ukim.mk)
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