The Element Calcium

Do you know that calcium holds the fifth spot of the most abundant among all the elements on earth? However, regardless of that fact, it can never be found as it is in nature because the element calcium easily reacts with water and oxygen to form compounds.

Romans, during the 1st century, used to prepare the element calcium, then named as calyx, as lime. But it wasn’t until 1808 that the element calcium was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy. Lime was electrolyzed in mercury to produce calcium amalgam. This process was done by Berzelius and Pontin. The discovery of the element calcium by Sir Humphrey Davy was a successful isolation of the impure metal from that process.

The element calcium, with an atomic number 20, is a trimorphic metal. This means that it is harder than the element sodium. However, the element aluminum is still harder compared to the element calcium.

When the ions of the element calcium are dissolved in water, they form sediments on the walls of pipes. This is caused when the water contains too much metal such as magnesium or calcium, and is then termed as hard water. Today, industrial plants make use of water softeners to ease the occurrence of mineral deposits. The process of electrolysis separates the metallic calcium from the softened calcium chloride.

Even if it cannot be found in nature as it is, the element calcium is still one of the most plentiful on earth. Its compounds make up 3.64% of the planet’s crust. The element calcium can only be found as limestone, fluorite, gypsum, and other forms of its compounds.

The element calcium is important in every living thing. It can be found in the bones and skeleton of humans and animals, and is present in all kinds of plants. Calcium, in its various forms, plays essential roles in the existence of living matter.

Very few know that calcium is the most plentiful among all metals that can be found in the human body. All bones and teeth are mostly made up of the element calcium. Lime is used as a common reference to it.

While the lack of calcium in our body can lead to osteoporosis and other bone-related diseases, taking in more than the necessary amount can likewise lead to serious medical conditions like kidney stones or the sclerosis of the blood vessels and the kidneys.

There are a lot of uses for the element calcium that we know about. And just how many of those that we know about are correct? We can only guess. Or we can do more than speculate.

Calcium Oxide

Calx, lim, or lime. Regardless what term you use, they all mean the same thing. Calcium Oxide is a widely-used chemical compound with the chemical symbol CaO. It is described as colorless and crystalline or white and shapeless. Other names for calcium oxide are quicklime and caustic lime.

Calcium oxide is produced through the heating of coral, limestone, chalk, or sea shells, all of which are calcium carbonates. This process expels carbon dioxide gas, leaving lime as the main product. Moreover, this particular process is reversible, meaning, lime reacts with carbon dioxide in order to produce calcium carbonate.

Sourcing out calcium oxide from limestone is among the oldest chemical processes done by man. The vast presence of limestone in the planet and its convenient way of producing calcium oxide from it is only one of the reasons why lime is considered as an ancient chemical product. Another reason is its being valuable. Since it has many uses, industries manufacture it in a large scale. In fact, the United States produced about 20 million metric tons of calcium oxide in the year 2000.

Calcium oxide’s reaction with carbon dioxide is at a slow rate in room temperature. However, the process can be sped up by mixing water with lime, producing calcium hydroxide or slaked lime. The reaction of carbon dioxide and calcium hydroxide then is made faster, creating a quick-hardening mortar as an end product.

Calcium oxide is of great importance to the modern world. Almost half of its production is intended for use by the steel industry. This is because of the fact that lime has the ability to react with silicates to form solutions.

The manufacture of some metals also utilizes calcium oxide. Some chemicals are also produced using lime as an essential material. There are numerous industrial processes that involve the use of calcium oxide such as removal of phosphates in sewages, water supply pretreatment, pulping wood in the paper industry, and as coagulant in the sugar industry.

Calcium oxide can be harmful when inhaled, irritating the lungs, causing shortness of breath and coughing. Contact can lead to eye and skin irritations or burns. Being exposed for a long time may result to nose irritation which can later result to a porous bone, fragile nails, and breaks in the skin.

Lime even played a huge part in theatres. Why else, do you think, would they call limelight as such?