Sodium Chloride (NaCl)-Crystalline

Characteristic

 

Sodium chloride, commonly known as salt (though sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl




Chemical formula：NaCl

Molar mass：58.443 g/mol

Appearance：Colorless cubic crystals

Odor：Odorless

Density：2.17 g/cm3

Melting point：800.7 °C (1,473.3 °F; 1,073.8 K)

Boiling point：1,465 °C (2,669 °F; 1,738 K)

Solubility in water：360 g/L

Solubility in ammonia：21.5 g/L

Solubility in methanol：14.9 g/L

Magnetic susceptibility (χ)：−30.2·10−6 cm3/mol

Refractive index (nD)：1.5441 (at 589 nm)

Crystal structure：Face-centered cubic

 


Application

 

Sodium Chloride (NaCl) is widely used in biochemistry and molecular biology applications. It is considered an essential nutrient. It is used in a wide variety of biochemical applications including creating density gradients, regulating biological functions and as a diluent to increase ionic strength in buffers or culture media. NaCl is a component of phosphate buffered saline and SSC buffer. It has also been used for precipitation of DNA from SDS-containing samples and in the removal of small nucleic acid fragments from plasmid DNA preparations.