Flame, golden

Soft, bright, silvery metal malleable, can be readily cut with a knife or extruded as wire liquid sodium in inert atmosphere appears like mercury blue vapor, appears brilliant green at high temperatures imparts golden-yellow color to flame body-centered cubic structure paramagnetic density 0.97... 

All sodium compounds impart a golden yellow color to flame. Sodium can be identified spectroscopically by characteristic line spectra. Trace sodium may be measured quantitatively by flame atomic absorption or flame emission photometric method. The element may be measured at 589 nm using an air-acetylene flame. If using an ICP-atomic emission spectrophotometer, sodium may be measured at 589.00 or 589.59nm. Metallic sodium may be analyzed quantitatively by treating with ethanol and measuring the volume of hydrogen liberated. 

P.H. Stewart, C.W. Larson, and D. Golden. Pressure and Temperature-Dependence of Reactions Proceeding via a Bound Complex. 2. Application to 2CH3 C2H5 + H. Combust. Flame, 75 25-31,1989. 

Sodium is a very active element. It combines with oxygen at room temperature. When heated, it combines very rapidly, burning with a brilliant golden-yellow flame. 

Like the other alkali metals, cesium is a soft, silvery metal, but it appears golden if it has been exposed to small amounts of oxygen. It is not found in its metallic state in nature it is obtained as a byproduct of lithium processing of the mineral lepidolite. Its most significant ore is pollucite, and the world s largest pollucite deposit is found in Bernic Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Cesium s average crustal abundance is about 3 parts per million. Cesium is the most electropositive stable element and will ignite if exposed to air. Cesium burns blue in the flame test. 

---