Sodium salts are salts composed of a sodium cation and any anion. The anion may be the conjugate base of some inorganic or , or any monatomic or polyatomic anion. They can be formed by the neutralization of acids with sodium hydroxide.
Categorization
Sodium salts can be categorized into:
Organic sodium salts
Drugs
In pharmaceutical technology acidic pharmaceutical substances are often converted into sodium salts, because they are more stable, more soluble or membrane-permeable (
bioavailable) than the base compound. Examples of such sodium salts are (selection):
Bispyribac,
bithionol,
bosentan,
brequinar,
bromfenac,
Cefmenoxime,
ceftiofur,
citicoline,
cromolyn,
diclofenac,
Flucloxacillin,
fosinopril, Mordant brown 33,
naproxen,
Netobimin,
ozagrel,
pantoprazole,
pemetrexed,
secobarbital,
sitamaquin,
sitaxentan,
sulfamiderazin,
sulfapyridine,
sulfaquinoxaline,
sulfathiazole,
sulfazecin,
thiamylal and
mesna.
[ The Merck Index. An Encyclopaedia of Chemicals, Drugs and Biologicals. 14. Auflage, 2006, .] Most of these salts are sodium salts of organic carboxylic acids or sulfonic acids.
Plant protection agents
are often used as sodium salts for the reasons discussed above. One example is the sodium salt of methylflupyrsulfuron.
[ The Merck Index. An Encyclopaedia of Chemicals, Drugs and Biologicals. 14. Auflage, 2006, S. 718, .]
Cosmetics
Sodium salts of long chain sulfonic acids (e.g. sodium lauryl sulfate) are often included in
toothpaste and
shampoo. The sodium salts of fatty acids may serve as soaps and can therefore be called sodium soaps.
Dye production
Sodium salts of certain aromatic sulfonic acids—particularly naphthalenesulfonic acid—are used in the preparation of
Azo Dye.
Inorganic sodium salts
Examples of important inorganic sodium salts are
sodium fluoride,
sodium chloride,
sodium bromide,
sodium iodide,
sodium sulfate, sodium bicarbonate and
sodium carbonate.
Sodium amide (NaNH
2) is the sodium salt of
ammonia (NH
3).
