when was sodium dicovered
Sodium was first isolated in 1807 by Sir Humphry Davy, who made it by the electrolysis of very dry molten sodium hydroxide, NaOH. Sodium collected at the cathode.Davy isolated potassium by a similar procedure, also in 1807. Shortly after, Thenard and Gay-Lussac isolated sodium by reducing sodium hydroxide with iron metal at high temperatures.his was because early chemists did not recognise that vegetable alkali (K 2 CO 3, potassium carbonate, coming from deposits in the earth) and mineral alkali (Na 2 CO 3, sodium carbonate, derived from wood ashes) are distinct from each other. Eventually a distinction was made.