Aluminum is one of the most popular engineering materials. Its qualities are widely known. When people talk about the material, they tend to think about its functionality, durability, and lightweight. The material is everything. It is used for just about everything. You can find it in your home, automobile, the airplane, the computer, smartphone, and just about everywhere else. However, not much was known about the metal just two centuries ago. Hcaluminum can be produced in different shapes of aluminum.
The easiest way to spot aluminum is by looking for a silvery-white metal. It is denoted as the 13th element on the periodic table. Something that you might not know about aluminum is that it is considered to be the most widespread metal on our planet. It makes up over 8 percent of the core mass of the Earth. In fact, it is the most common chemical element after silicon and oxygen. However, pure aluminum does not naturally occur as it easily binds with different elements. Hence, it took such a long time for people to actually learn about it. Aluminum was first produced back in 1824. But, it took another 50 years for people to learn how to produce aluminum on an industrial level.
Aluminum sulphates are the most common type of aluminum that is found in nature. An aluminum sulphate is formed when two sulphuric acids combine together. One of the sulphuric acids is metal-based, whereas, the other is alkaline metal-based. Aluminum sulphates are generally used in medicine, for cooking, cleaning water, cosmetology, and for various other tasks. Aluminum is a word that has Latin roots.
There are about 300 different types of aluminum minerals and compounds that contain aluminum. These are mostly derived from feldspar which is a critical mineral that is found on Earth. It also contains emerald, sapphire, and ruby.
The Discovery
The discovery of aluminum was possible because of the efforts of Sir Humphry Davy. He was a British chemist and physicist who found a new chemical element through electrolysis. He used boric acid to obtain boron and continued his research by using electrolysis to further isolate 6 previously unknown metals such as strontium, magnesium, calcium, barium, sodium, and potassium. Davy later went on to prove that aluminum existed. He gave the metal discovered the name alumina. No matter how common aluminum might be today, it would have simply remained a secret without the research conducted by Davy using electricity. It allowed him to break down the chemical compounds. Later, Christian Oersted was a Danish physicist who used electrolysis for obtaining aluminum.
When it comes to aluminum production, bauxite is another common mineral that is used for obtaining the raw material. If you are not aware about bauxite, it is a clay mineral that has different alterations of aluminum hydroxide along with vanadium oxides, chromium, gallium, titanium, silicon, and iron.
Conclusion
Aluminum is considered to be one of the most popular metals today. It has made our lives a whole lot easier. Learning more about the material makes you understand its complexity.
