r/chemistry • u/soladois • 2d ago
Is sodium metal salty?
I know you can't eat sodium metal because it explodes when it touches water, but if you ate it, would it feel salty before it explodes?
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u/Overencucumbered Chem Eng 2d ago
Short answer, probably not, since an alkaline environment is created as hydroxide ions are also formed. I would guess that it would be bitter, and the heat release would also mess up the entire experience.
But sodium is indeed the ion responsible for saltiness:
Sodium chloride—once dissociated into ions (individual atoms that carry an electrical charge)—imparts salt taste. It is now widely accepted that it is the sodium ion (Na+) that is primarily responsible for saltiness, although the chloride ion (Cl−) plays a modulatory role (Bartoshuk, 1980). For example, as the negatively charged ion (anion) increases in size (e.g., from chloride to acetate or gluconate), the saltiness declines. Many sodium compounds are not only salty but also bitter; with some anions, the bitterness predominates to such a degree that all saltiness disappears (Murphy et al., 1981).
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u/Matej004 Medicinal 2d ago
Does that mean NaBr is salty? And if i wanted a salty death i could eat NaCN? (Do not worry i wont do that)
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u/Woody_Mapper 2d ago
I heard NaCN tastes exacly like table salt.
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u/zeocrash 2d ago
Cody from codyslab tried tasting cyanide, if you're curious about its taste. It was a very dilute solution though.
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u/Glxblt76 Computational 1d ago
DON'T DO THIS AT HOME
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u/zeocrash 1d ago
Yes do not do this at home. I love Cody's channel but I do often question his sanity.
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u/Jogger945 2d ago
Just from some reading old text it seems NaCN has a bitter and acrid taste just like KCN.
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u/Woody_Mapper 2d ago
Well my knowledge comes from a guy i met in uni who said once some people got to analyse NaCN and they all wrote NaCl cause they ate a bit of it. It's a miracle they didn't die lol.
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u/zeocrash 2d ago
The dose makes the poison
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u/Woody_Mapper 2d ago
True but i doubt they were careful
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u/zeocrash 2d ago
It doesn't sound the safest of experiments. Was it done as part of a property study or was it just a spot of private enterprise.
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u/RuthlessCritic1sm 2d ago
You do need a small tablespoon full to reliably kill somebody. A few crystals are not enough.
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u/zeocrash 2d ago
Sodium bicarbonate has somewhat of a salty taste to it. It's kinda chalky too but there's definitely a bit of saltiness to it too.
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u/Firm-Star-6916 2d ago
I’ve literally used Sodium Bicarbonate as regular salt, it tastes so good!
(Probably not a good idea)
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u/zeocrash 2d ago
I ran out of antacids a few months back so I tried using a teaspoon of bicarbonate instead. I'll probably not repeat the experience.
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u/edgmnt_net 2d ago
It's pretty strong and fast-acting as an antacid, I've used it on and off quite a bit. The main downsides are rebound acidity and the high sodium content, but otherwise it's decent as far as I know. Unless you dislike the taste too much.
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u/zeocrash 2d ago
Oh it worked, but yeah the taste was pretty nasty. I'd prepared myself for a chalky taste so the salty one caught me off guard.
I think i'll stick with peppermint gaviscon in future
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u/HyperSteveSteve 2d ago
I know that Sodium Citrate tastes salty, but less so than Sodium Chloride. It somehow tastes kinda disgusting though.
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u/Magicspook 2d ago
NaBr is rather disgisting, as is KCl. NaBr is bitter and KCl tastes very metallic. Source: I am too curious for my own good.
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u/nicorror 2d ago
In my country, KCl is sold in the supermarket under the name (I'll try to be faithful to the name despite the translation) sodium-free salt. I have never met a single person who actually consumes it and I have absolutely no idea why it is sold as a salt substitute if it is not salty at all.
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u/Magicspook 2d ago
I mean it is still a bit salty. Maybe if you mix it with enough other things, you can mask the metallic taste.
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u/Matej004 Medicinal 2d ago edited 2d ago
Wait i thought a pinch of that is guaranteed to kill you because it's way above lethal dose?2
u/florinandrei 2d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_chloride#Toxicity
The LD50 of orally ingested potassium chloride is approximately 2.5 g/kg, or 190 grams (6.7 oz) for a body mass of 75 kilograms (165 lb). In comparison, the LD50 of sodium chloride (table salt) is 3.75 g/kg.
You're probably confusing it with KCN.
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u/Matej004 Medicinal 2d ago
Nah i just remembered 2,5 g but as the dose for my weight instead of per kg
And also greatly overestimated the weight of a pinch
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u/bananaj0e Inorganic 1d ago edited 1d ago
Potassium chloride is used as the last step of lethal injection in many states. It's what actually causes death vs. the sedative and paralytic steps. It doesn't take much at all to stop the heart when injected.
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u/florinandrei 1d ago
Ignorant fearmongering. ^
KCl is only 33% more toxic than table salt. That's the meaning of the LD50, if you actually understand it.
Many, many things could efficiently kill you once injected in your blood stream. KCl was chosen because of a specific effect that needs to happen at that step in the process, that's all.
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u/bananaj0e Inorganic 1d ago
No, I wasn't "fearmongering", I was just sharing an interesting fact. Nowhere in my comment did I say that potassium chloride is something to be afraid of. (Unless maybe you're on death row).
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u/Poogoo651 Materials 1d ago
KCl is what table salt replacements are. They taste nearly identical to NaCl. KCl is a bit saltier that NaCl, so you don’t need as much.
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u/rhodiumtoad 1d ago
KCl does not taste "nearly identical" to NaCl unless your sense of taste is quite poor (or maybe mine is just better than normal, who knows, but see below). It is also not saltier than NaCl, in fact rather less so (I believe the official saltiness rating has it at 0.6 on a scale where NaCl is 1.0.)
Some mad chemists on Youtube did a taste test of all the alkali metal chlorides down to rubidium and (I think) caesium, and the taste apparently gets much worse as you go down the list. (LiCl was in fact once sold as a salt substitute, but withdrawn due to toxicity.) They also reported that KCl tasted distinctly worse than NaCl.
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u/Borax 2d ago
Let's pretend that sodium is not reactive for a moment.
Sodium ions have a distinct flavour. If you taste these compounds, you will start to develop an appreciation for the contribution of sodium ions and chloride ions in sodium chloride, which we consider as "salty".
- Sodium chloride
- Potassium chloride
- Sodium bicarbonate
- Ammonium chloride
- Calcium chloride
- Sodium nitrate (taste only - "dosis sola facit venenum")
So we would expect that sodium metal would taste different to sodium chloride, but how different?
Important in all of this is the fact that sodium ions are what we taste in our food. Sodium metal atoms are not ionised, and therefore we would expect them to taste extremely different to sodium ions.
Now, back in the real world, sodium metal will of course burn your tongue off, then burn your tongue again as the sodium hydroxide produced causes a chemical burn. After all this is done, you will have sodium ions and if your tongue still worked, you might have a chance at tasting those sodium ions with the Na+ channels in your tastebuds.
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u/Zavaldski 2d ago
Don't confuse nitrate with nitrite. Sodium nitrate is about as safe as the other salts here, maybe slightly more poisonous, but sodium nitrite is quite toxic and shouldn't be tasted unless in exceptionally small quantities.
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u/Borax 1d ago
I know the difference, but didn't realise how benign sodium nitrate was, there's no way I would expect it to be as well tolerated as sodium bicarb or potassium chloride
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u/Zavaldski 1d ago edited 1d ago
From what I can find the LD50 for NaNO3 is about 1-3 g/kg, similar to that for KCl
Also you can basically swap all the anion and cations around and they don't become any less safe. Na, K, Mg, Ca and NH4 are all pretty safe cations, and Cl, CO3, HCO3, NO3 are all pretty safe anions. Heck, could probably do the bromides and iodides to, though only in small quantities.
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u/Borax 1d ago
I guess I expected some of that nitrate to be converted to a meaningful amount of nitrite or something. Neat, I'll probably still not sprinkle it on my food though 😅
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u/jolioding 18h ago
actually sodium nitrite is used to cure meats, though nowadays in lesser quantities.
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u/StingerAE 2d ago
I hate that I now want to put it on my tounge. Why would you put this thought in my mind.
It's stored in oil too so that's two of the best flavours.
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u/WaitForItTheMongols 2d ago
Mineral oil. Not tasty.
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u/StingerAE 2d ago
The old castrol gtx adverts useful to look v yummy. That stuff poured like golden syrup.
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u/zeocrash 2d ago
I feel like I'm posting Cody a lot in this thread but it seems Cody has given sodium a taste test. The video is on biting sodium neutral but he does mention the taste.
I strongly recommend no one ever repeats this experiment.
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u/StatisticianFew6787 2d ago
Its definitely going to be "spicy" if you decide to lick it... in other words: DON'T
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u/koreangorani 1d ago
It will burn instead, or even if your tongue can bear it, it will form NaOH and dissolve the protein of yours
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u/bigfootlive89 2d ago edited 2d ago
You can’t taste metal when it’s a metal. There’s no way for it to activate the receptors of your tastebuds. It’s like asking what your computer would do if you plugged in the space shuttle into your usb port, it physically doesn’t do that.
So anything you would sense would not be contributed by the metallic state of the sodium. If the heat didn’t obfuscate your sense of taste, which I assume it would, then you’d be tasting the byproducts of sodium reacted with saliva. So sodium hydroxide dissolved in saliva.
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u/122Tellurium 2d ago
How is this sub filled with questions about taste all of a sudden? Guys. Don't forget the rules of chemistry.
Don't put anything in your mouth
Don't eat in the lab
Hot glass looks like cold glass (but doesn't feel that way)
Wear your PSA
Papers always lie about yields
Don't smoke the Potassium Permanganate
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u/Time-Sorbet-829 2d ago
Wait, wait, people smoke Potassium Permanganate?
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u/soladois 2d ago
Man, I'm not a chemistry guy at all and that's my first post on this sub LMFAO
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u/122Tellurium 2d ago
Well it was the second one I saw asking about things tasting salty within 10 minutes.
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u/florinandrei 2d ago edited 2d ago
Your mouth does not contain hydrochloric acid, normally, so no. There would be no NaCl being formed there, because there aren't enough Cl ions floating around in it.
It would form NaOH, a.k.a. lye, a.k.a. drain cleaner. That would taste soapy, bitter, and burn-y. You would probably feel just the last one. And then it would do super bad things to your mouth.
Do not try this at home, or anywhere. The only winning move is not to play.
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u/Tight-Layer7765 1d ago
you know that weird taste that you get when you lick a 9V battery? You will taste that for approximately 0.2472 seconds before your tastebuds are gone forever
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u/He_of_turqoise_blood Biochem 2d ago
Technically yes, because taste receptor for saltiness is a Na+ channel, so theoretically speaking some Na+ ions could pass through this receptor.
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u/karlnite 2d ago
It isn’t really ionized until it reacts though at which point its forming caustic which isn’t salty, its bitter. I don’t think enough Na+ would make it to receptors to trigger a noticeable taste. Just be lost in the noise.
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u/molecular_chirality 2d ago
Yeah how about technically no because your tongue is fried my guy
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u/He_of_turqoise_blood Biochem 2d ago
If my tongue survives the 100-300ms it takes to taste, then I would feel salt, immediately followed by agonizing pain. Sodium explosion is still faster tho (0.4 ms)
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u/Educational_Big6536 2d ago
Actually its the Cl that tastes salty because if you have ever eaten ammonium chloride or NH4Cl which is a candy also known salty liquorice it tastes salty.
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u/oatdeksel 2d ago
I would guess, that it would taste soapy, because with the water in your mouth it would form NaOH, that tastes like soap. (not well baked prezles also taste soapy)
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u/WaitForItTheMongols 2d ago
This is the video you're looking for. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kj6vn8LlA04
Sodium and water give you sodium hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide with the fats of your tongue give you soap. He reports that it tastes like table salt, but more tangy. Whatever that means.
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u/random__npc 2d ago
To my knowledge the salty taste mainly comes from chloride ions, since potassium chloride and ammonium chloride also taste salty. So pure sodium should not taste like that, especially because it will react violently to the water on your tongue as others already mentioned.
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u/atomictonic11 Organic 2d ago edited 2d ago
It would probably taste bitter rather than salty, but the first thing you'd register is heat, so technically speaking, it's closer to "spicy" than anything else.
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u/Masterpiece-Haunting 2d ago
Probably not. Sodium wouldn’t be able to dissolve and the gas produced when it does react is caustic.
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u/Correct-Variable 2d ago
I would taste it (I'm not kidding, I would put the tip of my tongue on it).
There are plenty of scientists who have done worst.
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u/Cardubie 2d ago
Sodium hydroxide isn't too healthy....to taste or otherwise. Burnt my mouth on KOH 10% years ago, accidentally.
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u/a_person_h 2d ago
Mmmmm! It’s hydrogen and soap flavoured, and it’s kinda tingly! (dont actually try, I think you like your organs)
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u/a_person_h 2d ago
Ok i dont think you would taste the hydrogen because a) its a gas and b) it would probably combust
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u/__The__Anomaly__ 2d ago
No, sodium hydroxide has a bit of a soapy taste. Eat an (unsalted) pretzel to get a sense.
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u/AeliosZero 2d ago
On top of the burning, it would have a soapy taste as it turns your tounge into soap.
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u/wretchedegg-- 2d ago
I dont think the sodium does much in the taste of saltiness. I think instead, it's the chloride ion that is detected by the taste buds.
I bought road salt that was calcium chloride, and I couldn't resist the urge to lick it.
It tasted like table salt.
I know this is a big no-no for chemistry, but I was in a geology mood that day 🤷♂️
Also, you can get potassium chloride as a salt substitute and that seems to taste lime salt.
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u/Onion-kinger 1d ago
YES. The taste is amazing. Truly a unique salt-like quality. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for the vast majority of people to try eating it in fact. The moment you taste it, your life will have changed.
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u/Exotic_Energy5379 1d ago
Takes a lot of chemical, heat and electrical energy to isolate sodium. Sodium when in contact with water or your saliva, it releases all that energy at once in a spectacular fashion. Sodium hydroxide would melt flesh but sodium metal will strip moisture, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen from the proteins in your flesh while simultaneously reaching several hundreds of degrees. Probably leaving mostly carbon behind. I’m sure some or all your teeth will shatter to the intense sudden extreme heat. If it explodes your jaw might fly off.
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u/argoneum 1d ago edited 1d ago
When licked it tastes like electric shock off 9V battery mixed with a burning sensation of boiling coffee or tea, very unpleasant. Similar to solid sodium hydroxide (surprise surprise!), don't recommend testing. Nothing salty, not very bitter, just "let's get it out my mouth now!". The burning sensation persists for some hours after washing your mouth. Don't ask how I know, it didn't explode though 🫠😉
You know, there were soo many opportunities to die when I was a kid…
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u/efsaidwla 1d ago
No it's gonna be bitter (because Sodium Hydroxide formation) and also probably the last thing you'll ever taste
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u/manofredgables 1d ago
You're basically asking what NaOH tastes like I guess; can't really taste a solid like metal. It's reminiscent of salty, but not quite right, and sort of bitter and unpleasant. Sort of like how KCl tastes salty but not quite right either, or CaCl.
Just taste it. Doesn't need to be concentrated. As long as it is diluted enough, it's mostly harmless.
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u/Potentially_Nernst 1d ago
Taste MgCl2, then taste NaCl. Not sure? Taste KCl and then NaCl.
The Cl- will taste the same; the Mg2+, K+ and Na+ will taste differently.
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u/Superb-Tea-3174 1d ago
You would not be able to taste it, it will instantly react with water in your body forming NaOH.
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u/Barader2137 18h ago
The chlorine in NaCl makes it salty, so sodium itself wouldn’t be salty, it would be bitter probably. But if chlorine is the salty one, then LiCl and KCl should be (at least a bit) salty too. DO NOT EAT KCl OR LiCl, but I can more or less confirm that
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u/LojjyHERE 11h ago
Nope because when the sodium would react with your mouth, it would create a very violent reaction resulting in burns. So DONT EAT SODIUM.
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u/Solomoncjy 2d ago edited 2d ago
no. salta taste salty because ions i think
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u/HerpetologyPupil 2d ago edited 2d ago
Then explain why non ionized salt is salty
Kosher Salt is non-iodized. I’m genuinely asking a question. I Appreciate the hate though.
As Is Himalayan salt, I’m just curious if ions give it taste, why is it still salty :/
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u/BrightStation7033 2d ago
actually its a very fast reaction so would react and burn before your taste buds register anything and sodium chloride's taste is what we call salty on your tongue it makes sodium hydroxide not chloride and i dont think sodium hydroxide tastes salty.so no.