Aluminum metal strip 120*30*2mm
Aluminum metal strip
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal in the boron group. By mass, aluminium makes up about 8% of the Earth’s crust, where it is the third most abundant element (after oxygen and silicon) and also the most abundant metal. Occurrence of aluminium decreases in the Earth’s mantle below, however. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite. Aluminium metal is highly reactive, such that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals.[7]
Aluminium is remarkable for its low density and its ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation. Aluminium and its alloys are vital to the aerospace industry[8] and important in transportation and building industries, such as building facades and window frames.[9] The oxides and sulfates are the most useful compounds of aluminium.[8]
Despite its prevalence in the environment, no known form of life uses aluminium salts metabolically, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals.[10] Because of these salts’ abundance, the potential for a biological role for them is of continuing interest, and studies continue.
Chemical Properties
Other properties | |
---|---|
Natural occurrence | primordial |
Crystal structure | face-centered cubic (fcc) |
Speed of sound thin rod | (rolled) 5000 m/s (at r.t.) |
Thermal expansion | 23.1 µm/(m·K) (at 25 °C) |
Thermal conductivity | 237 W/(m·K) |
Electrical resistivity | 26.5 nΩ·m (at 20 °C) |
Magnetic ordering | paramagnetic[4] |
Magnetic susceptibility | +16.5·10−6 cm3/mol |
Young’s modulus | 70 GPa |
Shear modulus | 26 GPa |
Bulk modulus | 76 GPa |
Poisson ratio | 0.35 |
Mohs hardness | 2.75 |
Vickers hardness | 160–350 MPa |
Brinell hardness | 160–550 MPa |
CAS Number | 7429-90-5 |
Chemical Symbol
Al
Storage
Dry and cool place at r.t.
Description Aluminum metal strip
Aluminium combines characteristics of pre- and post-transition metals. Since it has few available electrons for metallic bonding, like its heavier group 13 congeners, it has the characteristic physical properties of a post-transition metal, with longer-than-expected interatomic distances.[15] Furthermore, as Al3+ is a small and highly charged cation, it is strongly polarizing and bonding in aluminium compounds tends towards covalency;[31] this behavior is similar to that of beryllium (Be2+), and the two display an example of a diagonal relationship.[32]
The underlying core under aluminium’s valence shell is that of the preceding noble gas, whereas those of its heavier congeners gallium, indium, thallium, and nihonium also include a filled d-subshell and in some cases a filled f-subshell. Hence, the inner electrons of aluminium shield the valence electrons almost completely, unlike those of aluminium’s heavier congeners. As such, aluminium is the most electropositive metal in its group, and its hydroxide is in fact more basic than that of gallium.[31][e] Aluminium also bears minor similarities to the metalloid boron in the same group: AlX3 compounds are valence isoelectronic to BX3 compounds (they have the same valence electronic structure), and both behave as Lewis acids and readily form adducts.[33] Additionally, one of the main motifs of boron chemistry is regular icosahedral structures, and aluminium forms an important part of many icosahedral quasicrystal alloys, including the Al–Zn–Mg class.
Properties
Aluminium has a high chemical affinity to oxygen, which renders it suitable for use as a reducing agent in the thermite reaction. A fine powder of aluminium metal reacts explosively on contact with liquid oxygen; under normal conditions, however, aluminium forms a thin oxide layer (~5 nm at room temperature)[35] that protects the metal from further corrosion by oxygen, water, or dilute acid, a process termed passivation.[31][36] Because of its general resistance to corrosion, aluminium is one of the few metals that retains silvery reflectance in finely powdered form, making it an important component of silver-colored paints.[37] Aluminium is not attacked by oxidizing acids because of its passivation. This allows aluminium to be used to store reagents such as nitric acid, concentrated sulfuric acid, and some organic acids.[38]
In hot concentrated hydrochloric acid, aluminium reacts with water with evolution of hydrogen, and in aqueous sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide at room temperature to form aluminates—protective passivation under these conditions is negligible.[39] Aqua regia also dissolves aluminium.[38] Aluminium is corroded by dissolved chlorides, such as common sodium chloride, which is why household plumbing is never made from aluminium.[39] The oxide layer on aluminium is also destroyed by contact with mercury due to amalgamation or with salts of some electropositive metals.[31] As such, the strongest aluminium alloys are less corrosion-resistant due to galvanic reactions with alloyed copper,[24] and aluminium’s corrosion resistance is greatly reduced by aqueous salts, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals.[15]
Aluminium reacts with most nonmetals upon heating, forming compounds such as aluminium nitride (AlN), aluminium sulfide (Al2S3), and the aluminium halides (AlX3). It also forms a wide range of intermetallic compounds involving metals from every group on the periodic table.