aluminium

• Description
• General information
• Physical data
• Radii
• Electronegativities
• Solid state structure
• Temperatures
• Enthalpies
• Ionization Enthalpies
• Isotopes
• Further information

Description

Pure aluminium is a silvery-white metal with many desirable characteristics. It is light, nontoxic (as the metal), nonmagnetic and nonsparking. It is somewhat decorative. It is easily formed, machined, and cast. Pure aluminium is soft and lacks strength, but alloys with small amounts of copper, magnesium, silicon, manganese, and other elements have very useful properties.

Aluminium is an abundant element in the earth's crust, but it is not found free in nature. The Bayer process is used to refine aluminium from bauxite, an aluminium ore.

General information

Discoveror: Hans Christian Oersted
Date discovered: 1825
Discovered at: Denmark
Meaning of name: From the Latin word "alumen" meaning "alum"

Physical data

Standard state: solid at 298 K
Colour: silvery
Density of solid at ambient temperature/kg m^-3: 2700
Molar volume/cm³: 10.00

Radii /pm

Atomic: 118
Covalent (single bond):
Pauling radius for the ion [Al]^-: no data

Valence shell orbital radius maxima (R_max)

orbital	s	p	d	f
radius	111.0	142.2	no data	no data

Electronegativities

Both values are quoted on the Pauling scale.

Pauling: 1.61
Allred Rochow: 1.47

Crystal Structure

structure: ccp (cubic close-packed)

The following CrystalMaker image represents the solid state structure. For most elements, the most stable allotrope is illustrated. Try WebElements version 2 for interactive virtual reality and CHIME images.

Temperatures (/K)

melting point: 933.47
boiling point: 2792

Enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

fusion: 10.7
vaporization: 294

single bond enthalpies:

Al-F	Al-Cl	Al-Br	Al-I	Al-Al
583	421	no data	no data	186.2

Ionization enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

Number	Enthalpy
1st	577.6
2nd	1816.7
3rd	2744.8
4th	11578
5th	14831
6th	18378
7th	23295
8th	27459

Isotopes

This section gives some data for naturally occurring isotopes.

Nominal mass	Accurate mass	% natural abundance
27Al	26.9815386 (8)	100

Further Information

• Additional information about WebElements 1.2.2
• This is a licensed copy (here is the full list) of WebElements 1.2.2 and contains a subset of the material contained within the main version of WebElements (version 2)
• For further information please try WebElements version 2
• Sheffield Chemdex: perhaps the largest internet chemistry directory
• Sheffield Chemputer: interactive chemistry calculators on the WWW