Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Aluminium |
AluminiumNoun1. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "aluminium" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1895. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Chemistry | A)a metallic element; b)a good electrical conductor; c)a soft material particularly easily deposited by vacuum evaporation, adheres to silicon and silicon oxide surface. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Aluminium or aluminum (in the U.S. and Canada) 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.
Magnesium - Aluminium - Silicon B
Al
Ga
Full tableGeneral 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
iso NA half-life DM DE MeV DP 26Al {syn.} 7.17 E5 y Epsilon 4.004 26Mg 27Al 100% Al is stable with 14 neutrons SI units & STP are used except where noted.
Notable characteristics
Aluminum 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
Its oxide, alumina, is found naturally as corundum, emery, ruby, and sapphire and is used in glass making. Synthetic ruby and sapphire are used in lasers for the production of coherent light.
- Transportation (automobiles, airplanes, trucks, railcars, marine vessels, etc.)
- Packaging (cans, foil, etc.)
- Construction (windows, doors, siding, etc.)
- Consumer durable goods (appliances, cooking utensils, etc.)
- Electrical transmission lines (because of its light weight, even though its electrical conductivity is only 60% of copper's)
- Machinery.
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. 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 the 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.Aluminum was, when it was first discovered, extremely difficult to separate from the rocks it was part of and, since the whole of the Earth's aluminum 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 aluminum 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
Here the aluminium ion is being reduced (electrons are added). The aluminium metal then sinks to the bottom and is tapped off.
- Al3+ + 3e- → Al
The positive anode oxidizes the oxygen of bauxite, which then reacts with the carbon electrode to form carbon dioxide:
This cathode must be replaced often because it turns into carbon dioxide. Despite the cost of electrolysis, aluminium is a cheap and widely used metal. Aluminium can now be extracted from clay, but this process is not economical.
- 2O2- → O2 + 2e-
- O2 + C → CO2
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, 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
- WebElements.com - Aluminium
- EnvironmentalChemistry.com - Aluminium
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Aluminium."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| Al | English | Aluminium | Chemistry |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: AluminiumSynonyms: aluminum (n), atomic number 13 (n). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: al- (chemistry). |
Crosswords: Aluminium |
| English words defined with "aluminium": Aluminic, Andalusite ♦ Beauxite ♦ Chloralum ♦ Double salt ♦ Light metals ♦ Methide, Minargent ♦ Neogen, Noble metals ♦ Red liquor ♦ terra alba, Thienone, Thomsenolite ♦ Zinc spinel. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "aluminium": absorber plate, absorbing plate, absorbing surface, alpha-alumina, alu black, aluminium-ink, aluminium-silicon alloys ♦ capacitance vs.voltage dot, china-clay, Compact Disc Rewritable, cupro-nickel, current price, customary price, C-V dot ♦ deposited material, disappearing aluminium, disappearing aluminum ♦ epitaxial-alloyed FET ♦ ferro-aluminium ♦ kitchen box ♦ ortstein ♦ polishing stone, purple plague ♦ second aluminium, second aluminum, seeded gel, seeded gel aluminium oxide, silver ink ♦ tinsel yarn ♦ Wiederverbringen ♦ Ziegler chemistry. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "aluminium": Minargent. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Aluminium" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (aluminium, aluminum), Czech (aluminium), Danish (aluminium, aluminum), Dutch (aluminium, aluminum), French (aluminium, aluminum), German (aluminium, aluminum), Indonesian (aluminium), Latin (-al, al-, aluminium, aluminium chloride), Norwegian (aluminium, aluminum), Swedish (aluminium, aluminum). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Rancid Aluminium (2000) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
References |
|
Books | |
Periodicals | |
High Tech |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
 |  |
| "Aluminium roll" by Michel Marcon Commentary: "Aluminium roll." | "Aluminium relief" by Sunny Lim Commentary: "This is my aluminium relief project. i love it! ." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | A large capacity build up is also planned in the aluminum sector, given the projected plans of companies like Hindustan Aluminium, Indian Aluminium, and Sterlite Industries. (references) | |
The venture was formed for the construction, ownership and operation of two 400 kV transmission lines, from Eskom’s Arnot and Camden Power Stations in South Africa to the new Maputo substations in Mozambique, to supply of the $1,34 billion Mozambique Aluminium (MOZAL) smelter. (references) | ||
Economic History | Azerbaijan | In March 2001, the GOAJ awarded a 25-year management contract of a state-owned aluminum joint stock company, Azerbaijan Aluminium, to the Dutch firm Fondel Metal. (references) |
Worker Rights | India | During the year, 7,000 workers at the government-owned Bharat Aluminium Company went on a 67-day strike to protest the sale of the company to a private entrepreneur. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Aluminium" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.17% of the time. "Aluminium" is used about 963 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.17% | 955 | 7,609 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.73% | 7 | 133,076 |
| Noun (common) | 0.1% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 963 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name | Country | Name |
| Australia | Capral Aluminium Limited | Belgium | Remi Claeys Aluminium |
| Finland | Nordic Aluminium Oyj | Greece | Aloymil-Milonas Aluminium Industry SA |
| India | Indian Aluminium Company Limited | Japan | Daiki Aluminium Industry Co., Ltd. |
| Malaysia | Aluminium Company of Malaysia Berhad | Singapore | Liang Huat Aluminium Limited |
| South Korea | Aluminium of Korea | USA | Century Aluminium Company |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "aluminium": aluminium acetate ♦ aluminium alloy ♦ Aluminium bronze ♦ aluminium cement ♦ aluminium chloride ♦ aluminium foil ♦ aluminium hydroxide ♦ aluminium oxide ♦ aluminium saucepan ♦ aluminium sodium sulfate ♦ aluminium sulphate ♦ ammonium aluminium sulphate ♦ disappearing aluminium ♦ hydrated aluminium oxide ♦ second aluminium ♦ seeded gel aluminium oxide ♦ sheet aluminium ♦ sodium aluminium sulfate ♦ unalloyed aluminium and aluminium alloy gas cylinders. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "aluminium": aluminium-alloy, aluminium-antimonide, aluminium-based, aluminium-bodied, aluminium-bronze, aluminium-clad, aluminium-copper, aluminium-dome, aluminium-foil, aluminium-framed, aluminium-ink, aluminium-phosphide, aluminium-rich, aluminium-silicon, aluminium-skinned. | |
Ending with "aluminium": all-aluminium, cast-aluminium, ferro-aluminium, manganese-aluminium. | |
Containing "aluminium": manganese-aluminium-carbon, yttrium-aluminium-garnet. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "aluminium"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | aluminium (aluminum). (various references) | |
Albanian | alumin (aluminum), prej alumini (aluminum). (various references) | |
Arabic | الألومنيوم. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | алуминий (aluminum), алуминиев (aluminous, aluminum). (various references) | |
Chinese | 铝 (Aluminum). (various references) | |
Czech | aluminium, hliník (aluminum). (various references) | |
Danish | aluminium (aluminum). (various references) | |
Dutch | aluminium (aluminum). (various references) | |
Esperanto | aluminio (aluminum). (various references) | |
Farsi | فلزالومینیوم . (various references) | |
Finnish | alumiini (A1, aluminum, CI pigment metal, E173). (various references) | |
French | aluminium (aluminum). (various references) | |
German | Aluminium (aluminum). (various references) | |
Greek | αλουμίνιο (aluminum). (various references) | |
Hebrew | חמרן (aluminum), אלומיניום (aluminum). (various references) | |
Hungarian | alumínium (aluminum). (various references) | |
Indonesian | aluminium. (various references) | |
Irish | alúmanam (aluminum). (various references) | |
Italian | alluminio (aluminum). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | アルペン種目 (almanac, Alpine events, Alpine sports, alumina, aluminium foil, aluminium sash, aluminum, aluminum foil, anodized aluminum, armadillo, armagnac, tin foil). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | アルミニウム (aluminum), アルミ (aluminum). (various references) | |
Korean | 알루미늄 (Al, Al-, Aluminum). (various references) | |
Manx | ollymin. (various references) | |
Norwegian | aluminium (aluminum). (various references) | |
Papiamen | aluminio (aluminum). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aluminiumay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | alumínio (aluminum). (various references) | |
Romanian | aluminiu (aluminum). (various references) | |
Russian | алюминий (aluminum). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | aluminijumski (aluminum), aluminijum (aluminum). (various references) | |
Spanish | aluminio (aluminum). (various references) | |
Swedish | aluminium (aluminum). (various references) | |
Tagalog | alumínyo (aluminum). (various references) | |
Turkish | alüminyum (aluminum), alümínyum (aluminum). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | алюміній (aluminum). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | nhôm. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Al, aluminium. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "aluminium": aluminiums. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "aluminium" (pronounced uluw"munum or a'lyuw"munum) |
| 8 | u l uw" m u n u m | aluminum. |
| 4 | -u n u m | acronym, arcanum, organum, duodenum, lanthanum, laudanum, tympanum. |
| 3 | -n u m | molybdenum, phenom, platinum, plenum, denim, granum, interregnum, magnum, venom. |
| 6 | -uw" m u n u m | aluminum. |
| 4 | -u n u m | acronym, arcanum, organum, duodenum, lanthanum, laudanum, tympanum. |
| 3 | -n u m | molybdenum, phenom, platinum, plenum, denim, granum, interregnum, magnum, venom. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-i-i-l-m-m-n-u-u" | |
-1 letter: aluminum. | |
-2 letters: minimal. | |
-3 letters: alumin, alumni, limina, lumina, milium, minima, minium. | |
-4 letters: animi, ilium, imaum, liman, linum, miaul, milia, minim. | |
-5 letters: alum, amin, anil, ilia, imam, inia, lain, lima, limn, luau, luna, mail, maim, main, malm, maul, maun, mina, mini, mumu, muni, nail, ulan, ulna, unai, unau. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-i-i-l-m-m-n-u-u" | |
+1 letter: aluminiums. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Names: Company Usage 10. Expressions 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Abbreviations 14. Acronyms 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
