We've asked Lonnie to demonstrate the formation of an ionic bond. In this case, the bond between sodium and chlorine in sodium chloride. So Lonnie's filled a beaker with elemental chlorine. That's chlorine gas, Cl2. It's a yellow gas.
He'll also use solid sodium metal. Solid sodium metal is a... shiny silver metal that's very soft. He can actually cut it with a knife. Sodium metal is very reactive.
It will react in air and water, so it's stored under hexane. He'll pull off a small chunk and immediately store it under hexane while he prepares the rest of the experiment. Now, to get the reaction to go, he'll want to clean the sodium, make the surface very clean, and warm it slightly to help the reaction proceed.
He'll do that by placing the sodium in a spatula and then warming it over a flame to clean the surface and to get the sodium warm enough to initiate the chemical reaction. Now, the reaction between sodium metal and chlorine gas proceeds, but we know the ionization energy of sodium is greater than the energy released, the electron affinity, when chlorine accepts electrons. So, the reaction goes because the positive ions formed on sodium and the negative ions formed on chlorine are drawn together, a coulombic interaction, to form an ionic bond.
The formation of that ionic bond, plus and minus charges attracted together, releases energy, and that's the driving force for this chemical reaction. And you can see that it's exothermic. Energy's being released.
bright red glow typical of emissions from sodium. Now the reaction between sodium and chlorine, of course, forms sodium chloride. We typically know that as table salt.
And Lani's prepared some in advance. He has white table salt, purified. that he can show us.
There it is, purified in advance from Lonnie Laboratories. And Lonnie tells me the salt that he makes in Lonnie Laboratories is far superior to any salt that you can buy in the store. So what does he have to do now?
Ah! Lonnie's going to demonstrate, clearly hasn't had his breakfast this morning, that Lonnie Labs salt, far superior to any salt you could buy in the store. Thank you, Lonnie, for that demonstration that sodium chloride, an important spice and food flavoring.
And when you make it yourself, the satisfaction is so much more complete.