Aluminum (Al), also spelled aluminium, chemical element, a lightweight silvery white metal of main Group 13 (IIIa, or boron group) of the periodic table. Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in Earth’s crust and the most widely used nonferrous metal. Because of its chemical activity, aluminum never occurs in the metallic form in nature, but its compounds are present to a greater or lesser extent in almost all rocks, vegetation, and animals. Aluminum is concentrated in the outer 16 km (10 miles) of Earth’s crust, of which it constitutes about 8 percent by weight; it is exceeded in amount only by oxygen and silicon. The name aluminum is derived from the Latin word alumen, used to describe potash alum, or aluminum potassium sulfate. Continue reading from Encyclopedia Britannica
The analysis of a curious metal ornament found in the tomb of Chou-Chu, a military leader in 3rd century China, turned out to be 85% aluminium. How it was produced remains a mystery. By the end of the 1700s, aluminium oxide was known to contain a metal, but it defeated all attempts to extract it. Humphry Davy had used electric current to extract sodium and potassium from their so-called ‘earths’ (oxides), but his method did not release aluminium in the same way. The first person to produce it was Hans Christian Oersted at Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1825, and he did it by heating aluminium chloride with potassium. Even so, his sample was impure. It fell to the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler to perfect the method in 1827, and obtain pure aluminium for the first time by using sodium instead of potassium. Continue reading from Royal Society of Chemistry
A single Boeing-747 contains 147,000 pounds (more than 66,000 kilograms) of aluminum, according to Chemicool. The top of the Washington Monument is capped with an 8.9-inch (22.6 centimeters) aluminum pyramid. The aluminum cap initially served as the apex of the monument's lightning rod, though it had to be augmented with copper rods when it became clear that the cap alone could not prevent damage, according to a 1995 article in the Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society.
That can of Coke may not have been off the shelf for long. According to the Aluminum Association, an aluminum can takes as little as 60 days to return as a new can after recycling. About 75 percent of all aluminum ever made is still in use, thanks to recycling, according to the Aluminum Association. Continue reading from LiveScience
