This process is called electrolysis .
Sodium is a very soft, silvery-white metal.
It is so soft that it can be easily cut with a knife. Compounds of sodium are very common, but the metal itself cannot be found in nature in its pure form. Pure sodium metal has virtually no practical application since it reacts vigourously under normal enironmental conditions. It isso reactive that the pure metal has to be stored in containers filled with a non-reactive liquid such as kerosene. Today sodium is produced commercially by the same procedure used for isolating the first samples of the pure metal nearly two centuries ago.