Aluminum development history

The English name of aluminum comes from alum, that is, the double salt of sulfuric acid KAl(SO4)2·12H2O. In prehistoric times, humans have used clay containing aluminum compounds (Al2O3 2SiO2 2H2O) to make pottery. The content of aluminum in the earth's crust ranks third after oxygen and silicon. However, due to the weak oxidizing property of aluminum compounds, aluminum is not easy to be reduced from its compounds, so metal aluminum cannot be separated out. After the Italian physicist Volta invented the battery, David tried to use electric current to separate the metal aluminum from the bauxite without success, but he suggested that it should be named "alumium", which was later changed to "aluminum", which was soon modified into aluminium. This word form is used worldwide, except in North America, where the American Chemical Society (ACS) decided in 1925 to use "aluminum" for publications.

The chemical symbol Al belongs to the IIIA group in the periodic table of elements, the atomic number is 13, the atomic weight is 26.98154, face-centered cubic crystal, and the common valence is +3. Aluminum is the most important light metal.

The word aluminium is derived from the ancient Roman word alumen (alum). In 1746, the German Potter (J.H.Pott) produced an oxide, namely alumina, from alum. A.L.Lavoisier in France in the 18th century believed that this was an oxide of an unknown metal, which had such a great affinity for oxygen that it was impossible to reduce it with carbon and other reducing agents known at the time. In 1807, the Englishman David (H.Davy) tried to electrolyze molten alumina to obtain metal, but it was unsuccessful. In 1809, he named this imaginary metal alumium, and later changed to aluminum. In 1825, Danes Oersted (H.C.Oersted) reduced anhydrous aluminum chloride with potassium amalgam, and obtained several milligrams of metal aluminum for the first time, pointing out that it has the same color and luster as tin. In 1827, German Waller (F.W?hler) reduced anhydrous aluminum chloride with potassium to obtain a small amount of metal powder. In 1845, he used aluminum chloride gas to pass through the surface of molten potassium metal to obtain some aluminum beads, each weighing about 10-15 mg, so as to make a preliminary determination of the density and ductility of aluminum, and pointed out that the melting point of aluminum is not high. In 1854, French Deville (S.C.Deville) used sodium instead of potassium to reduce NaAlCl4 complex salt to obtain metal aluminum. A factory was established in the same year, producing some aluminum helmets, cutlery and toys. At that time, the price of aluminum was close to that of gold. In 1886, American Hall (C.M.Hall) and French Heiroult (P.L.T.Héroult) obtained patents for preparing metal aluminum by cryolite-alumina molten salt electrolysis method at the same time. In 1888, the first electrolytic aluminum plant was established in Pittsburgh, the United States, and aluminum production entered a new stage. In 1956, the world's aluminum production began to surpass copper and ranked first in non-ferrous metals. The price of aluminum is relatively cheap by volume among the commonly used non-ferrous metals. [1]

In a later period, aluminum was a treasure enjoyed by emperors and nobles. The French Emperor Napoleon III used aluminum forks at banquets; the Thai kings used aluminum bracelets. At the Paris Exposition in 1855, it was displayed with the jewels in the crown, and the label stated "Silver from Clay". In 1889, Mendeleev also received aluminum vases and cups from the London Chemical Society. By the end of the 19th century, the price of aluminum had fallen thousands of times. The first is that in the 1870s, after Siemens improved the generator, there was cheap electricity; the second was that Heroult of France and C. M. Hall of the United States developed electrolysis by dissolving alumina in cryolite (Na3AlF6) in 1886, respectively. method. They were both 22 at the time. This initiative enabled aluminum to be produced on a large scale, laying the foundation for the industrial method of electrolysis of aluminum in the world today. So far, all kinds of aluminum products have been widely entered into thousands of households.

On October 27, 2017, the list of carcinogens published by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer was preliminarily sorted out for reference, and aluminum products were included in the list of Class I carcinogens.

On July 30, 2018, an international team of researchers said they had unambiguously detected a radioactive molecule (aluminum fluoride, containing the radioactive isotope "aluminum-26" of aluminum) for the first time in the universe, and that this molecule may be caused by two stars collided and 'splashed' into interstellar space