NaCl
table salt · halite, sodium chloride, rock salt
Sodium chloride is a fundamental ionic compound essential for biological processes and various industrial applications. It is widely recognized as the primary component of common table salt and is used extensively in food preservation, chemical manufacturing, and de-icing.
Key Properties
Cross-validated computational properties for table salt, aggregated across 4 databases.
Band GapEnergy needed to move an electron from the valence band to the conduction band. Lower or zero values tend to behave more metallic; larger gaps are more insulating or semiconducting.
Energy Above HullThermodynamic distance from the most stable set of competing phases. 0 eV/atom is on the convex hull; small positive values may still be experimentally accessible.
StabilityA plain-language summary of the best reported energy-above-hull result. It reflects whether the lowest-energy structure is on, near, or far from the stability hull.
StructuresCount of reported calculated crystal structures for this formula, including alternate polymorphs, source databases, and observed space groups.
Reported Structures
Lowest-energy structures reported for NaCl, ranked by energy above hull.
| Space GroupSymmetry classification of the crystal arrangement. The number is the international space-group index. | Crystal SystemBroad lattice family, such as cubic, tetragonal, monoclinic, or triclinic, derived from unit-cell symmetry. | Band Gap (eV)Electronic gap calculated for this specific reported structure, measured in electronvolts. | E above hull (eV/atom)Thermodynamic distance from the convex hull for this structure, normalized per atom. Lower is generally more stable. | E/atom (eV)Computed total energy normalized per atom. Use energy above hull, not this value alone, when comparing stability. | Density (g/cm³)Mass per relaxed crystal volume, reported in grams per cubic centimeter. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fm-3m (No. 225) | cubic | 5.00 | 0.0000 | -6.897 | 2.22 |
| P63/mmc (No. 194) | hexagonal | 4.38 | 0.0588 | -6.838 | 2.05 |
| Pm-3m (No. 221) | cubic | 3.97 | 0.1544 | -6.742 | 2.26 |
| Pm-3m (No. 221) | Cubic | — | — | — | 2.31 |
| Cm (No. 8) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 1.78 |
| Cm (No. 8) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 1.87 |
| Cm (No. 8) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 2.11 |
| Cm (No. 8) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 1.67 |
| Cm (No. 8) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 1.55 |
| Cm (No. 8) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 1.53 |
| C2/m (No. 12) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 1.64 |
| C2/m (No. 12) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 1.47 |
Synthesis Routes
Literature-extracted synthesis procedures targeting NaCl.
Applications
Where table salt is used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about table salt, answered from cross-validated data.
What is NaCl?
Sodium chloride is a fundamental ionic compound essential for biological processes and various industrial applications. It is widely recognized as the primary component of common table salt and is used extensively in food preservation, chemical manufacturing, and de-icing.
What is NaCl used for?
What is the band gap of NaCl?
Is NaCl a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
Is NaCl thermodynamically stable?
What is the crystal structure of NaCl?
What is the density of NaCl?
How many polymorphs of NaCl are known?
How is NaCl synthesized?
What elements does NaCl contain?
Where does the data for NaCl come from?
Data sources & attribution
- materials_project — Data from the Materials Project. Cite: Jain et al., APL Materials 1, 011002 (2013).
- mpaloe — Data from mpaloe.
- cod — Data from the Crystallography Open Database. Cite: Grazulis et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 40, D420 (2012).
- jarvis — Data from JARVIS (NIST). Cite: Choudhary et al., npj Comp. Mater. 6, 173 (2020).
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