Aluminum ranks amongst the world's most abundant elements. After Silicon and Oxygen it is the most common element found in the Earth's crust, accounting for approximately 7.3% of the Earth's mass. Despite this abundance Aluminum only occurs in Nature in more complex compounds, and perhaps due to this its discovery¹ was prolonged to 1808² by British Scientist Sir Humphry Davy giving the metal a relatively recent history. Since then the production of the metal has developed hugely.

The development of the Hall-Herout Method in 1886 gave an inexpensive method of extracting aluminum and since then the diversity of its end uses has vastly expanded. Aluminum is now used in foil, ladders, television sets, tennis rackets, power lines and aeroplanes, to name but a few. In terms of properties, the combination that Aluminum has is virtually unique. Aluminum is three times lighter than steel, and it is this lightweight property along with its strength that can be obtained in certain alloys (by altering the structure), that makes aluminum particularly important in air travel. It's high level of malleability (2nd most malleable metal) means it can be easily moulded into many shapes. Although aluminum has only 63% the electrical conductivity of copper it weighs just half as much, and given its the world's 6th most ductile metal its ideal for longer distance power cables.

Aluminum forms a 5 nm thick protective layer when exposed to air, making the metal very corrosion resistant, and ideal for using in the building industry as it is virtually maintenance free. So a perfect metal? Not quite. Aluminum has some weaknesses but these are few and often easy to overcome.

The information that was collected during this study has been used to answer several common questions regarding the relationship between the metal's properties and uses. The answers that have been written link the sections of the site together and show how the combination of factors, and properties of a material effect it's abilities to be used in the world today.

This website can be viewed in two ways. It can either be dipped into by using the menu on the left to move from section to section, or it can be read as a whole by using the arrows that appear at the base of each section to guide you through it all. Whichever way this front page provides an overview of the entire website's contents.

Abundance →

1: It is possible that "discovered" is the wrong word to use in this case. Sir Humphry Davy named the material, but aluminum wasn't actually isolated until 1825 when Danish Scientist Hans Christian Oersted managed to seperate the aluminum from Aluminum Chloride (although whether he "discovered" it is subject to further debate). For more details see the history section.
2: There was some disagreement over this figure in the resources that I used. The World-Aluminum Organisation (part of the International Aluminum Institute, which states their first aim to be "increasing the market for aluminum") suggests that 1808 was the year that Davy named the material. But Web Elements which is an independently run website, and the host of the world's most popular periodic table gives the year 1807. Although the significance of this difference is little, I trusted the World-Aluminum Institute, as although the clearly want to promote Aluminum I feel there would be no benefit for them in miss-stating this figure. Also the World-Aluminum Organisation specialises in Aluminum (unlike Web Elements) so I feel that them making an error is less likely.