Aluminum used to be know as Aluminium which is now the British spelling of the word. Aluminum is soft, shiny, lightweight metal with colors ranging from silvery to dull gray, depending on the surface roughness. Aluminum is nontoxic, nonmagnetic, and non-sparking. Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust. You can find aluminum in many different places, it is a very abundant metal, automobiles, airplanes, trucks, railcars, and marine vessels are made with aluminum. Aluminum was once considered a precious metal that was more valuable than gold. Napoleon III is said to have held a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminum utensils, and the other guests were given gold ones. In 1807 Sir Humphrey Davy proposed that they should name the yet to be discovered metal aluminum, it was then altered to aluminium and this spelling was used until 1925 when the American Chemical Society changed the spelling back to aluminum.

1 Properties
2 Occurrences
3 Uses
4 History
5 Related References
6 See Also

Properties

Corrosion resistance is excellent because of a thin surface layer of aluminum oxide which forms when the metal is exposed to air. Aluminum retains full silvery reflectance in a finely powdered form; because of this they use it in silver paints. Aluminum is a good thermal and electrical conductor, it is also able to be a superconductor. It has a superconducting critical temperature of 1.2 Kelvin.1

Occurrences

Aluminium metal with an American penny for size comparison.

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust, but it is rare in its free form, only occurring in oxygen-deficient environments such as volcanic mud. Aluminum is a reactive metal that is difficult to extract from ore. Aluminum oxide is extracted by electrolysis; which is when the aluminum oxide is dissolved in molten cryolite and then reduced to the pure metal. Cryolite is a mixture of aluminum, sodium, and calcium fluorides. The aluminum oxide which is a white powder is obtained by refining bauxite in the Bayer process. 1

Uses

An aluminium canister

You can find aluminum in many different places, it is a very abundant metal, you find aluminum in automobiles, airplanes, trucks, railcars, marine vessels are made with aluminum. Packaging such as cans, and foil; it is used in construction with windows, doors, siding, industrial equipment, and silver paint; consumer durables like appliances, and cooking utensils; electrical transmission lines, machinery, some play props and many other sources. 3

History

The metal originally got its name from the Latin alumen. In 1761, the name of alumina was offered as the name for the base in alum by L. B. G. de Moreveau, this was later found out to be the oxide of a yet to be discovered metal. In 1807, Sir Humphrey Davy proposed that they should name the yet to be discovered metal aluminum. This name was then altered to aluminium so that most of the elements would have “ium” ending. This version of the name was used throughout the world until 1925, when the American Chemical Society changed the spelling back to the original spelling of aluminum. Even though they new of the existence of aluminum it would many, many years for people to for people to find a way to get the metal out from its ore and how to use it commercially. 7

Crude aluminum was isolated In 1825 Hans Christian Ørsted isolated crude aluminum; he did this by reducing aluminum chloride with potassium amalgam. In 1809, Sir Humphry Davy prepared an iron-aluminum alloy by electrolyzing fused aluminum oxide. Friedrich Wöhler a German chemist used potassium metal as a reducing agent produced aluminum powder in 1827, and small globules of the metal in 1845, by doing this he was able to determine some of aluminum's properties.8