Sodium amalgam sodium metal in mercury or the reverse. Sodium amalgams can be purchased from chemical supply houses. Since its introduction in the 1880s by students of Robert Bunsen, Julius Tafel and Hans Goldschmidt, sodium amalgam has also been used in organic chemistry as a powerful reducing agent, which is safer to handle than sodium itself. An example of its use is in the Emde degradation. A sodium amalgam is used in the design of the high pressure sodium lamp providing sodium to produce the proper color, and mercury to tailor the electrical characteristics of the lamp. Sodium amalgam is a by-product
Amalgam (dentistry) problem. This phase has been shown to be the weakest phase in the set amalgam and is subject to corrosion, particularly at the tooth-amalgam interface. In 1962 a new amalgam alloy, called Dispersalloy, was introduced with the addition of a spherical silver-copper eutectic particle to the traditional lathe-cut AgSn particle in a ratio of 1:2. The mixture of these two types of particles is known as admix alloy. The benefits of this alloy was to strengthen the set amalgam and reduce the γ phase (SnHg). The increased copper in the silver-copper eutectic reacted preferentially with tin so that SnHg could