Question

Why sodium reacts with water

Answer 1

Sodium reacts violently with water because it is much more active than hydrogen. Although water is covalent, not ionic, it is helpful sometimes to consider water to be [H+][OH-], since after all hydrogen has a slight excess of positive charge. Sodium is very stable in a positive oxidation state in comparison to neutral sodium atoms; the difference is much greater than that for hydrogen. Therefore, a redox reaction between H+ and Na to give H(2) and Na+ is very energetically favorable. So much energy is released that the hydrogen gas released can burn.