Calcium (Ca)

Chemical element
Written by: Timothy P. Hanusa
HTTP://WWW.BRITANNICA.COM/EBCHECKED/TOPIC/88956/CALCIUM-CA/1018/COMPOUNDS#REF89814

Alternate title: Ca

Compounds
The most important calcium compound is calcium carbonate, CaCO3, the major
constituent of limestone, marble, chalk, oyster shells, and corals. Calcium carbonate
obtained from its natural sources is used as a filler in a variety of products, such
asceramics, glass, plastics, and paint, and as a starting material for the production of
calcium oxide. Synthetic calcium carbonate, called precipitated calcium carbonate,
is employed when high purity is required, as in medicine (antacids and dietary
calcium supplements), in food (baking powder), and for laboratory purposes.

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Calcium oxide, CaO, also known as lime or more specifically quicklime, is a white or
grayish white solid produced in large quantities by roasting calcium carbonate so as
to drive off carbon dioxide. At room temperature, CaO will spontaneously absorb
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reversing the reaction. It will also absorb water,
converting itself into calcium hydroxide and releasing heat in the process. The

bubbling that accompanies the reaction is the source of its name as quick, or living,
lime. The reaction of quicklime with water is sometimes used in portable heat
sources. One of the oldest known products of a chemical reaction, quicklime is used
extensively as a building material. It is sometimes used directly as a fertilizer,
although calcium carbonate is usually preferred for that purpose. Large quantities of
quicklime are used in various industrial neutralization reactions. Limelights, used in
the 19th century in stage lighting, emit a very brilliant white light upon heating a block
of calcium oxide to incandescence in an oxyhydrogen flame, hence the expression
to be in the limelight.
A large amount of calcium oxide also is used as starting material in the production
ofcalcium carbide, CaC2, also known simply as carbide, or calcium acetylide.
Colourless when pure (though technical grades are typically grayish brown), this
solid decomposes in water, forming flammable acetylene gas and calcium hydroxide,
Ca(OH)2. The decomposition reaction is used for the production of acetylene, which
serves as an important fuel for welding torches. The drip of water on calcium carbide
produces a steady stream of acetylene that is ignited in carbide lamps. Such lamps
were commonly used in lighthouse beacons and by miners in the early 20th century
and still find some use in spelunking. Calcium carbide also is used to make calcium
cyanamide, CaCN2, a fertilizer component and starting material for certain plastic
resins.
Calcium hydroxide, also called slaked lime, Ca(OH)2, is obtained by the action of
water on calcium oxide. When mixed with water, a small proportion of it dissolves,
forming a solution known as limewater, the rest remaining as a suspension called
milk of lime. Calcium hydroxide is used as an industrial alkali and as a constituent
ofmortars, plasters, and cement. It is used in the kraft paper process and as a
flocculant in sewage treatment.
Another important compound is calcium chloride, CaCl2, a colourless or white solid
produced in large quantities either as a by-product of the manufacture of sodium
carbonate by the Solvay process or by the action of hydrochloric acid on calcium
carbonate. The anhydrous solid is used as a drying agent and for dust and ice
control on roads. Calcium hypochlorite, Ca(ClO 2), widely used as bleaching powder,
is produced by the action of chlorine on calcium hydroxide. The hydride CaH2,
formed by the direct action of the elements, liberates hydrogen when treated with
water. Traces of water can be removed from many organic solvents by refluxing
them in the presence of CaH2.

Calcium sulfate, CaSO4, is a naturally occurring calcium salt. It is commonly known in

its dihydrate form, CaSO42H2O, a white or colourless powder called gypsum. As
uncalcined gypsum, the sulfate is employed as a soil conditioner. Calcined gypsum
is used in making tile, wallboard, lath, and various plasters. When gypsum is heated
to about 120 C (250 F), it loses three-quarters of its water, becoming the
hemihydrate CaSO41/2H2O, plaster of paris. If mixed with water, plaster of paris can
be molded into shapes before it hardens by recrystallizing to dihydrate form. Calcium
sulfate may occur in groundwater, causing hardness that cannot be removed by
boiling.
Calcium phosphates occur abundantly in nature in several forms and are the
principal minerals for the production of phosphate fertilizers and for a range
ofphosphorus compounds. For example, the tribasic variety (precipitated calcium
phosphate), Ca3(PO4)2, is the principal inorganic constituent of bone ash. The acid
salt Ca(H2PO4)2, produced by treating mineral phosphates with sulfuric acid, is
employed as a plant food and stabilizer for plastics.
The hydrogen sulfite, Ca(HSO3)2, is made by the action of sulfur dioxide on a slurry of
Ca(OH)2. Its aqueous solution under pressure dissolves the lignin in wood to
leavecellulose fibres and thus finds considerable application in the paper industry.
The fluoride, CaF2, is important to the production of hydrofluoric acid, which is made
from CaF2 by the action of sulfuric acid. CaF2 is used in laboratory instruments as a
window material for both infrared and ultraviolet radiation.
Timothy P. Hanusa

Element Properties
atomic number

20

atomic weight

40.078

melting point

842 C (1,548 F)

boiling point

1,484 C (2,703 F)

specific gravity

1.55 (20 C, or 68 F)

oxidation state

+2

electron configuration

1s22s22p63s23p64s2

Calcium (Ca)
Chemical element
Written by: Timothy P. Hanusa
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/88956/calcium-Ca

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Alternate title: Ca
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Occurrence, properties, and uses
Compounds

Calcium (Ca), chemical element, one of the alkaline-earth metals of Group 2 (IIa) of
the periodic table. It is the most abundant metallic element in the human body and
the fifth most abundant element in Earths crust.

Occurrence, properties, and uses

Calcium does not occur naturally in the free state, but compounds of the element are
widely distributed. One calcium compound, lime (calcium oxide, CaO) was
extensively used by the ancients. The silvery, rather soft, lightweight metal itself was
first isolated (1808) by Sir Humphry Davy after distilling mercury from

an amalgamformed by electrolyzing a mixture of lime and mercuric oxide. The name

for the element was taken from the Latin word for lime, calx.

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Calcium constitutes 3.64 percent of Earths crust and 8 percent of the Moons crust,
and its cosmic abundance is estimated at 4.9 10 4 atoms (on a scale where the
abundance of silicon is 106 atoms). As calcite (calcium carbonate), it occurs on Earth
in limestone, chalk, marble, dolomite, eggshells, pearls, coral, stalactites,
stalagmites, and the shells of many marine animals. Calcium carbonate deposits
dissolve in waterthat contains carbon dioxide to form calcium bicarbonate,
Ca(HCO3)2. This process frequently results in the formation of caves and may
reverse to deposit limestone asstalactites and stalagmites. As calcium hydroxyl
phosphate, it is the principal inorganic constituent of teeth and bones and occurs as
the mineral apatite. As calcium fluoride, it occurs as fluorite, or fluorspar. And as
calcium sulfate, it occurs asanhydrite. Calcium is found in many other minerals, such
as aragonite (a type of calcium carbonate) and gypsum (another form of calcium
sulfate), and in manyfeldspars and zeolites. It is also found in a large number
of silicates and aluminosilicates, in salt deposits, and in natural waters, including the
sea.
Formerly produced by electrolysis of anhydrous calcium chloride, pure
calciummetal is now made commercially by heating lime with aluminum. The metal

reacts slowly with oxygen, water vapour, and nitrogen of the air to form a yellow
coating of the oxide, hydroxide, and nitride. It burns in air or pure oxygen to form the
oxide and reacts rapidly with warm water (and more slowly with cold water) to
producehydrogen gas and calcium hydroxide. On heating, calcium reacts with
hydrogen,halogens, boron, sulfur, carbon, and phosphorus. Although it compares
favourably with sodium as a reducing agent, calcium is more expensive and less
reactive than the latter. In many deoxidizing, reducing, and degasifying applications,
however, calcium is preferred because of its lower volatility and is used to
prepare chromium,thorium, uranium, zirconium, and other metals from their oxides.
The metal itself is used as an alloying agent for aluminum, copper, lead, magnesium,
and other base metals; as a deoxidizer for certain high-temperature alloys; and as a
getter in electron tubes. Small percentages of calcium are used in many alloys for
special purposes. Alloyed with lead (0.04 percent calcium), for example, it is
employed as sheaths for telephone cables and as grids for storage batteries of the
stationary type. When added to magnesium-based alloys in amounts from 0.4 to 1
percent, it improves the resistance of degradable orthopedic implants to biological
fluids, permitting tissues to heal fully before the implants lose their structural integrity.
Naturally occurring calcium consists of a mixture of six isotopes: calcium-40 (96.94
percent), calcium-44 (2.09 percent), calcium-42 (0.65 percent), and, in smaller
proportions, calcium-48, calcium-43, and calcium-46. Calcium-48 undergoes
doublebeta decay with a half-life of roughly 4 1019 years, so it is stable for all
practical purposes. It is particularly neutron-rich and is used in the synthesis of new
heavy nuclei in particle accelerators. The radioactive isotope calcium-41 occurs in
trace quantities on Earth through the natural bombardment of calcium-40 by
neutrons incosmic rays.
Calcium is essential to both plant and animal life and is broadly employed as a signal
transducer, enzyme cofactor, and structural element (e.g., cell membranes, bones,
and teeth). A large number of living organisms concentrate calcium in their shells or
skeletons, and in higher animals calcium is the most abundant inorganic element.
Many important carbonate and phosphate deposits owe their origin to living
organisms.
The human body is 2 percent calcium. Major sources of calcium in the human diet
are milk, milk products, fish, and green leafy vegetables. The bone

disease ricketsoccurs when a lack of vitamin D impairs the absorption of calcium

from the gastrointestinal tract into the extracellular fluids. The disease especially
affects infants and children.