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How does sodium react with liquid ammonia?

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Sodium dissolves in liquid ammonia to produce an intense blue solution. This color, along with the solution's electrical conductivity, is attributed to the presence of solvated electrons. These solutions are highly valued in chemistry as powerful sources of electrons for reducing other chemical species, such as in Birch reductions.12

At ordinary temperatures, a slow reaction occurs between sodium and liquid ammonia to form sodamide ( $N a N H_{2}$ ) and hydrogen gas, a process analogous to the reaction of sodium with water. This reaction is represented by the following equation:2

$N a + N H_{3} \to N a N H_{2} + 1 / 2 H_{2}$

The rate of this reaction can be increased by the addition of various metal or metal oxide catalysts. Because liquid ammonia acts as an effective solvent, it allows for numerous chemical reactions involving sodium to proceed at ordinary temperatures that would otherwise require the application of heat.2