The only stable isotope of aluminium is aluminium-27. It is the 3rd most abundant among the elements that have odd atomic numbers. It is the 12th most abundant of all elements. This is no longer true because, as technology improved, it became cheaper and easier to make pure metal. China produces about 31,873 thousand tonnes of aluminium.Īluminium was once considered a precious metal that was even more valuable than gold. The largest producer of aluminium is China. The aluminium oxide is electrolyzed to make aluminium and oxygen. Cryolite is normally produced artificially though. Then the aluminium oxide is dissolved in liquid cryolite, a rare mineral. The bauxite is crushed and reacted with sodium hydroxide. Pure aluminium is made from bauxite, a kind of rock that has aluminium oxide and many impurities. Uses include fireworks displays and rocket fuel. Because of this thin layer, the reactivity of aluminium is not seen. This layer protects the metal by preventing oxygen from reaching it. It is a highly reactive metal, although it is corrosion resistant.Ī fresh film of aluminium is a good reflector of visible light and an excellent reflector of medium and far infrared radiation.Īluminium prevents corrosion by forming a small, thin layer of aluminium oxide on its surface. It can be hammered into sheets ( malleable) or pulled out into wires ( ductile). For many years thereafter, Wöhler was credited as the person who discovered aluminium.Īluminium is a very good conductor of electricity and heat. In 1845, he was able to produce small pieces of the metal and described some physical properties of this metal.

(The reason for this inconsistency was only discovered in 1921.) He conducted a similar experiment in the same year by mixing anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium and produced a powder of aluminium. In 1827, German chemist Friedrich Wöhler repeated Ørsted's experiments but did not identify any aluminium. He presented his results and showed a sample of the new metal in 1825. He reacted anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium amalgam, yielding a lump of metal looking similar to tin. The first successful attempt, finished in 1824 by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted. People have tried to produce aluminium since 1760. The symbol for aluminium is Al, and its atomic number is 13.

Looking at the picture, you can see there are two electrons in shell one, eight in shell two, and three in shell three.Aluminium (in American and Canadian English also: aluminum) is a chemical element. That means there are 13 electrons in a aluminum atom.

for the element of ALUMINUM, you already know that the atomic number tells you the number of electrons. Once one shell is full, the next electron that is added has to move to the next shell. As you learn about elements with more than eighteen electrons you will find that shell three can hold more than eight. Shell number one can only hold 2 electrons, shell two can hold 8, and for the first eighteen elements shell three can hold a maximum of eight electrons. The electrons like to be in separate shells/orbitals. In an atom, the electrons spin around the center, also called the nucleus. Each of those colored balls is an electron. In the next section we're going to cover electron orbitals or electron shells. It tells you the mass of one atom, how many pieces are inside, and where it should be placed on the periodic table. That box on the left has all of the information you need to know about one element.

Aluminum atomic number