calcium

/kal"see euhm/, n. Chem., Biol.

a silver-white divalent metal, occurring combined in limestone, chalk, gypsum, etc., occurring also in vertebrates and other animals, as a component of bone, skeletal mass, shell, etc., and as a necessary element in nerve conduction, heartbeat, muscle contraction, and many other physiological functions. Symbol: Ca; at. wt.: 40.08; at. no.: 20; sp. gr.: 1.55 at 20°C.

[1800-10; CALC- + -IUM]

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Chemical element, one of the alkaline earth metals, chemical symbol Ca, atomic number 20.

The most abundant metallic element in the human body, it is an essential part of bones and teeth and has many physiological functions (see calcium deficiency; tooth). It is the fifth most abundant element in Earth's crust but does not occur naturally in the free state. In its compounds calcium has valence 2. It occurs in limestone, chalk, marble, dolomite, eggshells, pearls, coral, and many marine shells as calcium carbonate, or calcite; in apatite as calcium phosphate; in gypsum as calcium sulfate; and in many other minerals. It is used as an alloying agent and in other metallurgical applications; its alloy with lead is used in cable sheathing and grids for batteries. Calcite is used as a lime source, a filler, a neutralizer, and an extender; in pure form it is used in baking powder and as an antacid and calcium supplement. Calcium oxide (lime) and its product after water addition, calcium hydroxide (slaked lime), are important industrially. Other significant compounds are calcium chloride (a drying agent), calcium hypochlorite (a bleach), calcium sulfate (gypsum and plaster of paris), and calcium phosphate (a plant food and stabilizer for plastics).

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▪ chemical element

Introduction

 chemical element, one of the alkaline-earth metals of main 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 the Earth's crust.

Properties, occurrence, and uses

      Extensively used by the ancients as the compound lime, the silvery, rather hard but lightweight metal itself was first isolated (1808) by Sir Humphry Davy after distilling mercury from an amalgam formed by electrolyzing a mixture of lime and mercuric oxide. His discovery showed lime to be an oxide of calcium.

      Calcium does not occur naturally in the free state, but compounds of the element are widely distributed. It constitutes 8 percent of the Moon's crust and is the fifth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, constituting 3.64 percent. Its cosmic abundance is estimated at 4.9 × 10⁴ atoms (Si = 10⁶ atoms). As calcite (calcium carbonate), it occurs in limestone, chalk, marble, dolomite, eggshells, pearls, coral, stalactites, stalagmites, and the shells of many marine animals. Calcium carbonate deposits dissolve in water that 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 as stalactites and stalagmites. As calcium 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 as anhydrite. Calcium is found in many other minerals, such as aragonite, gypsum (another form of calcium sulfate), and in many feldspars and zeolites. It is also found in a large number of silicates and aluminosilicates, in salt deposits, and in natural waters, including the sea.

      Calcium is essential to both plant and animal life. A large number of living organisms concentrate calcium in their shells or skeletons, and indeed 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. The major source of calcium in the human diet is milk and milk products. Rickets occurs, especially in infants and children, when lack of vitamin D impairs the absorption of calcium from the gastrointestinal tract into the extracellular fluids (see calcium deficiency).

      Formerly produced by electrolysis of anhydrous calcium chloride, pure calcium metal is now made commercially by heating lime with aluminum. It reacts with water and, upon heating, with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, halogens, boron, sulfur, carbon, and phosphorus as well. Calcium's commercial applications depend largely on these reactions. Although it compares favourably with sodium as a reducing agent, calcium is more expensive and less reactive than the latter. In many deoxidizing, reducing, degasifying, and alloying applications, however, calcium often is preferred because of its lower volatility. Small percentages of calcium are used in many alloys for special purposes.

      The metal itself is used as an alloying (alloy) agent for aluminum, copper, lead, magnesium, and other base metals; as a deoxidizer for certain high-temperature alloys, and for nickel, steel, and tin bronzes; as a getter in electron tubes; as a reducing agent in the preparation of chromium, thorium, uranium, zirconium, and other metals from their oxides; and as a dehydrating agent for organic liquids. Alloyed with lead (0.04 percent calcium), it is employed as sheaths for telephone cables and as grids for storage batteries of the stationary type. Limelights, formerly used in stage lighting, emit a soft, 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.”

      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 smaller proportions of calcium-48, calcium-43, and calcium-46. 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 produce hydrogen gas and calcium hydroxide.

Principal compounds

      The most important of the calcium compounds is calcium carbonate, CaCO₃, the major constituent of limestones, marbles, chalks, oyster shells, and corals. Calcium carbonate obtained from its natural sources is used as a filler in a variety of products, such as ceramics and glass, 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 (antacid and dietary calcium supplement), in food (baking powder), and for laboratory purposes.

      Calcium oxide, also known as lime, or quicklime, CaO, is a white or grayish white solid produced in large quantities by roasting calcium carbonate so as to drive off carbon dioxide. Lime, one of the oldest products of chemical reaction known, is used extensively as a building material and as a fertilizer. Large quantities of lime are utilized in various industrial neutralization reactions. A large amount also is used as starting material in the production of calcium carbide, CaC₂. Also known as carbide, or calcium acetylide, this grayish black 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. 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 primarily as an industrial alkali and as a constituent of mortars, plasters, and cement.

      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. Calcium hypochlorite, Ca(ClO₂), 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, CaSO₄∙2H₂O, a white or colourless powder called gypsum. As uncalcined gypsum, the sulfate is employed as a soil corrector. Calcined gypsum is used in making tile, wallboard, lath, and various plasters. When gypsum is heated and loses three-quarters of its water, it becomes the hemi-hydrate CaSO₄∙¹/₂H₂O, plaster of paris, which is produced by partial calcination at about 120° C. 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 whole range of phosphorus compounds. For example, the tribasic variety (precipitated calcium phosphate), Ca₃(PO₄)₂, is the principal inorganic constituent of bones and 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 leave cellulose 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.

atomic number

20

atomic weight

40.08

melting point

842° C

boiling point

1,494° C

specific gravity

1.55 (20° C)

oxidation state

+2

electronic config.

1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁶4s²

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