Sodium Chloride - Applications

Sodium chloride, halite, sodium chloride - all these are names of the same substance - all the usual table salt. Its scope is extensive: from medicine to the chemical and food industries.

Salt in cooking

Real table salt, unlike artificial iodized salt, contains a large amount of useful trace elements and has no expiration date. It is necessary to use it for preparation of house preparations.

Perhaps, for the time being, the most unusual way of using salt in cooking is to use it as a cookware. The layers of Himalayan salt replace the kitchens with cutting boards, plates and even pans. Now many restaurants install salt plates instead of traditional hobs.

Sodium chloride in medicine

By itself salt is a good folk remedy both for the prevention of colds, and for the treatment of an already neglected disease.

A solution of sodium chloride (saline solution) is widely known in medical practice. It is used to dissolve various drugs. As an independent agent, sodium chloride is used to control dehydration. It also serves to treat skin lesions.

Very popular is halotherapy - visiting the salt caves. This is a whole line of treatment and prevention of respiratory and skin diseases in children and adults. During the patient's stay in a specially equipped room, the air is filled with halo aerosols (sodium chloride aerosols), which are the main active substance.

Use of salt in public utilities

In winter, so-called sodium chloride technical, mixed with sand or small gravel, is used to fight ice on the roads. Thanks to salt, snow melts at a negative temperature, and sand provides the grip of the soles of shoes and wheels of cars with the road.

Despite the fact that salt strongly damages shoes, especially leather, and is the cause of corrosion of car bodies, it is still not replaced by other reagents due to its low cost. Recently, calcium chloride has been added to the sand and salt mix , the result is the same, but the resulting composition is less harmful to the environment.

Sodium chloride as a deicing agent is used not only in Russia. The "charms" of its application are felt by the inhabitants of Ukraine, Belarus, China, the United States. In Sweden, a mixture of salt with granite chips is used.

Other uses of sodium chloride

Salt is a part of special solutions that are used in the final stage of silvering of metals (coatings of base metals like brass or copper with a thin layer of silver). This technique is used to create jewelry, cutlery, and for the production of electrical connectors.

In refrigeration technology, an aqueous solution of sodium chloride is one of the most common coolants.

Very popular, especially among the supporters of a healthy lifestyle, salt lamps, the plafonds of which are carved from halite. Being switched on, they work like air ionizers. For interior decoration, not only lamps or candlesticks from salt are used. Now the demand for halite bricks and tiles is growing as a building material for facing walls, including in residential areas.