what do sodium and magnesium have in common
Group 12 element Zinc, cadmium and mercury form a large range of alloys. Among the zinc containing ones, brass is an alloy of zinc and copper. Other metals long known to form binary alloys with zinc are aluminium, antimony, bismuth, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, tin, magnesium, cobalt, nickel, tellurium and sodium.[19] While neither zinc nor zirconium are ferromagnetic, their alloy ZrZn 2 exhibits ferromagnetism below 35Â K.[9] Cadmium is used in many kinds of solder and bearing alloys, due to a low coefficient of friction and fatigue resistance.[20] It is also found in some of the lowest-melting alloys, such as Wood's metal.[21] Because it is a liquid, mercury dissolves other metals and the alloys that are formed are called amalgams. For example, such amalgams are known with gold, zinc, sodium, and many other metals. Because iron is an exception, iron flasks have been traditionally used to trade mercury. Other metals that do not form amalgams with mercury include tantalum, tungsten and platinum. Sodium amalgam is a common reducing agent in organic synthesis, and is also used in high-pressure sodium lamps. Mercury readily combines with aluminium to form a mercury-aluminium amalgam when the two pure metals come into contact. Since the amalgam reacts with air to give aluminium oxide, small amounts of mercury corrode aluminium. For this reason, mercury is not allowed aboard an aircraft under most circumstances because of the risk of it forming an amalgam with exposed aluminium parts in the aircraft.[22]