Sodium /ˈsoʊdiəm/ is a chemical element with symbol Na (from New Latin natrium) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silver-white, highly reactive metal. In the Periodic table it is in column 1 (alkali metals), and shares with the other six elements in that column that it has a single electron in its outer shell, which it readily donates, creating a positively charged atom - a cation. Its only stable isotope is 23Na.