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| General | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Name, Symbol, Number | Aluminium, Al, 13 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chemical series | True metals | ||||||||||||||||||
| Group, Period, Block | 13 (IIIA), 3 , p | ||||||||||||||||||
| Density, Hardness | 2700 kg/m3, 2.75 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Appearance | silvery | ||||||||||||||||||
| Atomic Properties | |||||||||||||||||||
| Atomic weight | 26.981538 amu | ||||||||||||||||||
| Atomic radius (calc.) | 125 (118) pm | ||||||||||||||||||
| Covalent radius | 118 pm | ||||||||||||||||||
| van der Waals radius | no data | ||||||||||||||||||
| Electron configuration | [Ne]33s2 3p1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| e- 's per energy level | 2, 8, 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Oxidation states (Oxide) | 3 (amphoteric) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Crystal structure | Cubic face centered | ||||||||||||||||||
| Physical Properties | |||||||||||||||||||
| State of matter | solid | ||||||||||||||||||
| Melting point | 933.47 K (1220.58 °F) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Boiling point | 2792 K (4566 °F) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Molar volume | 10.00 ×1010-3 m3/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| Heat of vaporization | 293.4 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| Heat of fusion | 10.79 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| Vapor pressure | 2.42 E-06 Pa at __ K | ||||||||||||||||||
| Speed of sound | 5100 m/s at 933 K | ||||||||||||||||||
| Miscellaneous | |||||||||||||||||||
| Electronegativity | 1.61 (Pauling scale) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Specific heat capacity | 900 J/(kg*K) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Electrical conductivity | 37.7 106/m ohm | ||||||||||||||||||
| Thermal conductivity | 237 W/(m*K) | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1st ionization potential | 577.5 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd ionization potential | 1816.7 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3rd ionization potential | 2744.8 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 4th ionization potential | 11577 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5th ionization potential | 14842 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 6th ionization potential | 18379 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 7th ionization potential | 23326 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 8th ionization potential | 27465 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 9th ionization potential | 31853 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10th ionization potential | 38473 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||
| Most Stable Isotopes | |||||||||||||||||||
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| SI units & STP are used except where noted. | |||||||||||||||||||
Aluminium or aluminum (in North American English) is a chemical element in the periodic table with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. A silvery, ductile metal, aluminium is found primarily as the ore bauxite and is remarkable for its resistance to oxidation, its strength, and its light weight. Aluminium is used in many industries to make millions of different products and is very important to the world economy. Structural components made from aluminium are vital to the aerospace industry and very important in other areas of transportation and building in which light weight, durability, and strength are needed.
| Table of contents |
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2 Applications 3 History 4 Occurrence & resources 5 Isotopes 6 Precautions 7 Spelling 8 External Links |
Notable characteristics
Aluminium is a soft, lightweight and but strong metal with a dull silver-gray appearance, due to a thin layer of oxidation that forms quickly when it is exposed to air and which prevents further corrosion. Aluminium weighs about one-third as much as steel or copper; is malleable, ductile, and easily machined and cast; and has excellent corrosion resistance and durability. It is also nonmagnetic and nonsparking and is the second most malleable metal and the sixth most ductile.
Applications
Whether measured in terms of quantity or value, aluminium's use exceeds that of any other metal except iron, and it is important in virtually all segments of the world economy.
Pure aluminium is soft and weak, but it can form alloys with small amounts of copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, and other elements to make alloys having a variety of useful properties.
These alloys form vital components of aircraft and rockets. When aluminium is evaporated in a vacuum it forms a coating that reflects both visible light and radiant heat. These coatings form a thin layer of protective aluminium oxide that does not deteriorate as silver coatings do. Coating telescope mirrors is another use of this metal.
Some of the many uses for aluminium are in
Aluminium oxidizes very energetically and as a result has found use in solid rocket fuels and thermite.
History
Friedrich Wöhler is generally credited with isolating aluminium (Latin alumen, alum) in 1827. However, this metal was produced for the first time in impure form two years earlier by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted.
Henri Sainte-Claire Deville presented in a book in 1859 two improvements to the process as to substitute potassium to sodium and double instead of simple chlorure.
The invention of the Hall-Héroult process in 1886 made extracting aluminium from minerals inexpensive, and so it is now in common use throughout the world.
Ancient Greeks and Romans used this metal as dyeing mordant and as an astringent to bind wounds, and alum is still used as a styptic. In 1761 Guyton de Morveau proposed calling the base alum alumine.
Occurrence & resources
Although Al is an abundant element in Earth's crust (8.1%), it is very rare in its free form and was once considered a precious metal more valuable than gold. It is therefore comparatively new as an industrial metal and has been produced in commercial quantities for just over 100 years.
Aluminium was, when it was first discovered, extremely difficult to separate from the rocks it was part of and, since the whole of Earth's aluminium was bound up in the form of compounds, the most difficult metal on earth to get, despite the fact that it is one of the planet's most common.
For a while, precious aluminium was more valuable than gold, but the prices dropped continually and collapsed altogether when an easy extraction method was discovered in 1889.
Recovery of this metal from scrap (via recycling) has become an important component of the aluminium industry. A common practice since the early 1900s, aluminium recycling is not new. It was, however, a low-profile activity until the late 1960s when recycling of aluminium beverage cans finally placed recycling into the public consciousness. Sources for recycled aluminium include automobiles, windows and doors, appliances, containers and other products.
Aluminium is a reactive metal and cannot be extracted from its ore, bauxite (Al2O3), through reduction with carbon. Instead it is extracted by electrolysis — the metal is oxidized in solution and then reduced again to the pure metal. The ore must be in a liquid state for this to occur. However, bauxite has a melting point of 2000°C, which is too high a temperature to achieve economically. Instead, the bauxite for many years was dissolved in molten cryolite, which lowers the melting point to about 900°C. But now, cryolite has been replaced by an artificial mixture of aluminium, sodium, and calcium fluorides. This process still requires a great deal of energy, and aluminium plants usually have their own power stations nearby.
The electrodes used in the electrolysis of bauxite are both carbon. Once the ore is in the molten state, its ions are free to move around. The reaction at the negative cathode is
The positive anode oxidizes the oxygen of bauxite, which then reacts with the carbon electrode to form carbon dioxide:
Isotopes
Aluminium has nine isotopes, whose mass numbers range from 23 to 30. Only Al-27 (stable isotope) and Al-26 (radioactive isotope, t1/2 = 0.72 × 106 y) occur naturally. Al-26 is produced from argon in the atmosphere by spallation caused by cosmic-ray protons. Aluminium isotopes have found practical application in dating marine sediments, manganese nodules, glacial ice, quartz in rock exposures, and meteorites. The ratio of Al-26 to beryllium-10 has been used to study the role of transport, deposition, sediment storage, burial times, and erosion on 105 to 106 year time scales.
Cosmogenic Al-26 was first applied in studies of the Moon and meteorites. Meteorite fragments, after departure from their parent bodies, are exposed to intense cosmic-ray bombardment during their travel through space, causing substantial Al-26 production. After falling to Earth, atmospheric shielding protects the meteorite fragments from further Al-26 production, and its decay can then be used to determine the meteorite's terrestrial age. Meteorite research has also shown that Al-26 was relatively abundand at the time of formation of our planetary system. Possibly, the energy released by the decay of Al-26 was responsible for the remelting and differentiation of some asteroids after their formation 4.6 billion years ago.
Precautions
Aluminium is one of the few abundant elements that appear to have no beneficial function in living cells, but a few percent of people are allergic to it -- they experience contact dermatitis from any form of it: an itchy rash from using styptic or antiperspirant products, digestive disorders and inability to absorb nutrients from eating food cooked in aluminium pans, and vomiting and other symptoms of poisoning from ingesting such products as Kaopectate, Amphojel, and Maalox. In other persons, aluminium is not considered as toxic as heavy metals, but there is evidence of some toxicity if it is consumed in excessive amounts, although the use of aluminium cookware, popular because of its corrosion resistance and good heat conduction, has not been shown to lead to aluminium toxicity in general. Excessive consumption of antacids containing aluminium compounds and excessive use of aluminium-containing antiperspirants are more likely causes of toxicity. It has been suggested that aluminium may be linked to Alzheimer's disease, although that research has recently been refuted.
Spelling
The official IUPAC spelling of the element is aluminium; however, Americans and Canadians generally spell and pronounce it aluminum. In 1807, Humphrey Davy proposed aluminum for the name of this then-undiscovered metal, but he later decided to change the name to aluminium to conform with the "ium" convention used in most element names. The aluminium spelling then became the most common in both Britain and the United States. Then the United States changed over time to aluminum for popular purposes. The official name used in the United States in the field of chemistry remained aluminium until 1926 when the American Chemical Society decided to use the name aluminum in its publications.
In 1990 the IUPAC adopted aluminium as the standard international name for the element. Aluminium is also the name used in French, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish; Italian uses alluminio, Portuguese alumínio and Spanish aluminio. (The use of these words in these other languages is one of the reasons IUPAC chose aluminium over aluminum.) In 1993, IUPAC recognized aluminum as an acceptable variant, but still prefers the use of aluminium.
External Links