Aluminium

It is a silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal in the boron group.

The boron group are the chemical elements in group 13 of the periodic table, comprising boron (B), aluminium (Al), gallium (Ga), indium (In), thallium (Tl), and perhaps also the chemically uncharacterized nihonium (Nh).

The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite.

Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content.

Aluminium metal is highly reactive, such that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments.

Metals that can be found as native deposits singly or in alloys include aluminium, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, indium, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, rhenium, selenium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, and zinc, as well as two groups of metals: the gold group, and the platinum group.

It is a silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal in the boron group.

Paramagnetic substances such as aluminum and oxygen are weakly attracted to an applied magnetic field; diamagnetic substances such as copper and carbon are weakly repelled; while antiferromagnetic materials such as chromium and spin glasses have a more complex relationship with a magnetic field.

By mass, aluminium makes up about 8% of the Earth's crust; it is the third most abundant element after oxygen and silicon and the most abundant metal in the crust, though it is less common in the mantle below.

Free silicon is also used in the steel refining, aluminium-casting, and fine chemical industries (often to make fumed silica).

Aluminium is remarkable for its low density and its ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation.

Corrosion coating reduces the rate of corrosion by varying degrees, depending on the kind of base metal and its environment, and is notably slower in room-temperature air for aluminium, chromium, zinc, titanium, and silicon (a metalloid); the shell of corrosion inhibits deeper corrosion, and operates as one form of passivation.

The most stable of these is 26 Al (half-life 720,000 years) and therefore could not have survived since the formation of the planet.

Aluminium-26 ( 26 Al, Al-26) is a radioactive isotope of the chemical element aluminium, decaying by either positron emission or electron capture to stable magnesium-26.

Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13.

By mass, aluminium makes up about 8% of the Earth's crust; it is the third most abundant element after oxygen and silicon and the most abundant metal in the crust, though it is less common in the mantle below.

Such an electron configuration is shared with the other well-characterized members of its group, boron, gallium, indium, and thallium; it is also expected for nihonium.

It is in group 13 of the periodic table, and thus has similarities to the other metals of the group, aluminium, indium, and thallium.

The ratio of 26 Al to 10 Be has been used for radiodating of geological processes over 10 5 to 10 6 year time scales, in particular transport, deposition, sediment storage, burial times, and erosion. The only lighter metals are the metals of groups 1 and 2, which apart from beryllium and magnesium are too reactive for structural use (and beryllium is very toxic).

When added as an alloying element to aluminium, copper (notably the alloy beryllium copper), iron or nickel beryllium improves many physical properties.

Such an electron configuration is shared with the other well-characterized members of its group, boron, gallium, indium, and thallium; it is also expected for nihonium.

The +3 state resembles that of the other elements in group 13 (boron, aluminium, gallium, indium).

Aluminium and its alloys are vital to the aerospace industry and important in transportation and building industries, such as building facades and window frames.

Aluminium alloys (or aluminum alloys; see spelling differences) are alloys in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal.

Aluminium is remarkable for its low density and its ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation.

Passivation in natural environments such as air, water and soil at moderate pH is seen in such materials as aluminium, stainless steel, titanium, and silicon.

Aluminium metal is highly reactive, such that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments.

Electropositive elemental metals, such as lithium, sodium, magnesium, iron, zinc, and aluminium, are good reducing agents.

Such an electron configuration is shared with the other well-characterized members of its group, boron, gallium, indium, and thallium; it is also expected for nihonium.

Nihonium has been calculated to have similar properties to its homologues boron, aluminium, gallium, indium, and thallium.

The only lighter metals are the metals of groups 1 and 2, which apart from beryllium and magnesium are too reactive for structural use (and beryllium is very toxic).

Petalite (Li Al Si 4 O 10 ) was discovered in 1800 by the Brazilian chemist José Bonifácio de Andrada in a mine on the island of Utö, Sweden.

The only lighter metals are the metals of groups 1 and 2, which apart from beryllium and magnesium are too reactive for structural use (and beryllium is very toxic).

The metal is now obtained mainly by electrolysis of magnesium salts obtained from brine, and is used primarily as a component in aluminium-magnesium alloys, sometimes called magnalium or magnelium.

Such an electron configuration is shared with the other well-characterized members of its group, boron, gallium, indium, and thallium; it is also expected for nihonium.

The earliest routes to elemental boron involved the reduction of boric oxide with metals such as magnesium or aluminium.

Aluminium reacts with most nonmetals upon heating, forming compounds such as aluminium nitride (AlN), aluminium sulfide (Al 2 S 3 ), and the aluminium halides (AlX 3 ).

Aluminium nitride (AlN) is a solid nitride of aluminium.

Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals.

These eight elements, summing to over 98% of the crust by weight, are, in order of decreasing abundance: oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium.

Aluminium has a high chemical affinity to oxygen, which renders it suitable for use as a reducing agent in the thermite reaction.

Fuels include aluminium, magnesium, titanium, zinc, silicon, and boron.

It is a silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal in the boron group.

Other significant metallic alloys are those of aluminium, titanium, copper and magnesium.

Since few electrons are available for metallic bonding, aluminium metal is soft with a low melting point and low electrical resistivity, as is common for post-transition metals.

Chemically, they are characterised—to varying degrees—by covalent bonding tendencies, acid-base amphoterism and the formation of anionic species such as aluminates, stannates, and bismuthates (in the case of aluminium, tin, and bismuth, respectively).

Aluminium's electropositive behavior, high affinity for oxygen, and highly negative standard electrode potential are all more similar to those of scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, and actinium, which have ds 2 configurations of three valence electrons outside a noble gas core: aluminium is the most electropositive metal in its group.

The properties of scandium compounds are intermediate between those of aluminium and yttrium.