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Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. It has a great affinity towards oxygen, forming a protective layer of oxide on the surface when exposed to air.
Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide, alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process.Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery.
Recycling aluminum, which does not require electrolysis, is thus not treated using this method. [1] The Hall–Héroult process consumes substantial electrical energy, and its electrolysis stage can produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide if the electricity is generated from high-emission sources.
Interference-colored anodized aluminum parts exhibit a distinctive quality: their color varies when viewed from different angles. [ 24 ] [ better source needed ] The interference coloring involves a 3-step process: sulfuric acid anodizing, electrochemical modification of the anodic pore, and metal (tin) deposition.
Items made from aluminum and its alloys must be carefully designed to minimize or evenly distribute flexure, which can lead to work hardening and, in turn, stress cracking, possibly causing catastrophic failure. For this reason modern aluminum aircraft will have an imposed working lifetime (dependent upon the type of loads encountered), after ...
Precipitation hardening, also called age hardening or particle hardening, is a heat treatment technique used to increase the yield strength of malleable materials, including most structural alloys of aluminium, magnesium, nickel, titanium, and some steels, stainless steels, and duplex stainless steel.
Aluminium (or aluminum) metal is very rare in native form, and the process to refine it from ores is complex, so for most of human history it was unknown. However, the compound alum has been known since the 5th century BCE and was used extensively by the ancients for dyeing .
The Bayer process is the principal industrial means of refining bauxite to produce alumina (aluminium oxide) and was developed by Carl Josef Bayer.Bauxite, the most important ore of aluminium, contains only 30–60% aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3), the rest being a mixture of silica, various iron oxides, and titanium dioxide. [1]