Aluminium is a soft, durable, lightweight, malleable metal with appearance ranging from silvery to dull grey, depending on the surface roughness. Aluminium is nonmagnetic and nonsparking. It is also insoluble in alcohol, though it can be soluble in water in certain forms. The yield strength of pure aluminium is 7–11 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600 MPa.[6] Aluminium has about one-third the density and stiffness of steel. It is ductile, and easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded.
Corrosion resistance can be excellent due to a thin surface layer of aluminium oxide that forms when the metal is exposed to air, effectively preventing further oxidation. The strongest aluminium alloys are less corrosion resistant due to galvanic reactions with alloyed copper.[6] This corrosion resistance is also often greatly reduced when many aqueous salts are present, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals.
Aluminium atoms are arranged in a face-centred cubic (fcc) structure. Aluminium has a stacking-fault energy of approximately 200 mJ/m2.[7]
Aluminium is one of the few metals that retain full silvery reflectance in finely powdered form, making it an important component of silver paints. Aluminium mirror finish has the highest reflectance of any metal in the 200–400 nm (UV) and the 3,000–10,000 nm (far IR) regions; in the 400–700 nm visible range it is slightly outperformed by tin and silver and in the 700–3000 (near IR) by silver, gold, and copper.[8]
Aluminium is a good thermal and electrical conductor, having 62% the conductivity of copper. Aluminium is capable of being a superconductor, with a superconducting critical temperature of 1.2 kelvins and a critical magnetic field of about 100 gauss (10 milliteslas).[9]
Isotopes
Aluminium has nine isotopes, whose mass numbers range from 23 to 30. Only 27Al (stable isotope) and 26Al (radioactive isotope, t1/2 = 7.2×105 y) occur naturally; however, 27Al has a natural abundance above 99.9%. 26Al 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 26Al to 10Be has been used to study the role of transport, deposition, sediment storage, burial times, and erosion on 105 to 106 year time scales.[10] Cosmogenic 26Al was first applied in studies of the Moon and meteorites. Meteoroid fragments, after departure from their parent bodies, are exposed to intense cosmic-ray bombardment during their travel through space, causing substantial 26Al production. After falling to Earth, atmospheric shielding protects the meteorite fragments from further 26Al production, and its decay can then be used to determine the meteorite's terrestrial age. Meteorite research has also shown that 26Al was relatively abundant at the time of formation of our planetary system. Most meteorite scientists believe that the energy released by the decay of 26Al was responsible for the melting and differentiation of some asteroids after their formation 4.55 billion years ago.[11]
Natural occurrence
In the Earth's crust, aluminium is the most abundant (8.3% by weight) metallic element and the third most abundant of all elements (after oxygen and silicon).[12] Because of its strong affinity to oxygen, however, it is almost never found in the elemental state; instead it is found in oxides or silicates. Feldspars, the most common group of minerals in the Earth's crust, are aluminosilicates. Native aluminium metal can be found as a minor phase in low oxygen fugacity environments, such as the interiors of certain volcanoes.[13] It also occurs in the minerals beryl, cryolite, garnet, spinel and turquoise.[12] Impurities in Al2O3, such as chromium or cobalt yield the gemstones ruby and sapphire, respectively. Pure Al2O3, known as corundum, is one of the hardest materials known.[12]
Although aluminium is an extremely common and widespread element, the common aluminium minerals are not economic sources of the metal. Almost all metallic aluminium is produced from the ore bauxite (AlOx(OH)3-2x). Bauxite occurs as a weathering product of low iron and silica bedrock in tropical climatic conditions.[14] Large deposits of bauxite occur in Australia, Brazil, Guinea and Jamaica but the primary mining areas for the ore are in Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Russia and Surinam.[15] Smelting of the ore mainly occurs in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Norway, Russia and the United States. Because smelting is an energy-intensive process, regions with excess natural gas supplies (such as the United Arab Emirates) are becoming aluminium refiners.
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