Aluminium

Aluminium is a chemical element in the boron group with symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery
white, soft, ductile metal. Aluminium is the third most abundant element (after oxygen and silicon), and
the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust. It makes up about 8% by weight of the Earth's solid surface.
Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing
[5]
environments. Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals. The chief ore of aluminium
is bauxite.
Aluminium is remarkable for the metal's low density and for its ability to resist corrosion due to the phenomenon of passivation. Structural components made from aluminium and its alloys are vital to
the aerospace industry and are important in other areas of transportation and structural materials. The
most useful compounds of aluminium, at least on a weight basis, are the oxides and sulfates.

Characteristics
Physical
Aluminium is a relatively soft, durable, lightweight, ductile and malleable metalwith appearance ranging
from silvery to dull gray, depending on the surface roughness. It is nonmagnetic and does not easily ignite. A fresh film of aluminium serves as a good reflector (approximately 92%) of visible light and an excellent reflector (as much as 98%) of medium and far infrared radiation. The yield strength of pure aluminium is 711 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600
[7]
MPa. Aluminium has about one-third the density and stiffness of steel. It is easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded.
Chemical
Corrosion resistance can be excellent due to a thin surface layer of aluminium oxide that forms when the
metal is exposed to air, effectively preventing furtheroxidation The strongest aluminium alloys are less
[7]
corrosion resistant due togalvanic reactions with alloyed copper. This corrosion resistance is also often
greatly reduced by aqueous salts, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals.
Isotopes
27
Aluminium has many known isotopes, whose mass numbers range from 21 to 42; however, only Al
26
5
27
(stable isotope) and Al (radioactive isotope, t12 = 7.210 y) occur naturally. Al has a natural abun26
dance above 99.9%. Al is produced fromargon in the atmosphere by spallation caused by cosmicray protons. Aluminium isotopes have found practical application in dating marine sediments, manganese
nodules, glacial ice, quartz in rock exposures, and meteorites
Natural occurrence
In the Earth's crust, aluminium is the most abundant (8.3% by weight) metallic element and the third most
[16]
abundant of all elements (after oxygen and silicon). Because of its strong affinity to oxygen, it is almost

never found in the elemental state; instead it is found in oxides or silicates. Feldspars, the most common
group of minerals in the Earth's crust, are aluminosilicates. Native aluminium metal can only be found as
[17]
a minor phase in low oxygen fugacity environments, such as the interiors of certain volcanoes. Native
aluminium has been reported in cold seeps in the northeastern continental slopeof the South China
[18]
Sea and Chen et al. (2011) have proposed a theory of its origin as resulting by reduction from tetrahy
droxoaluminate Al(OH)4 to metallic aluminium by bacteria.
Recycling
Aluminium is theoretically 100% recyclable without any loss of its natural qualities. According to
the International Resource Panel's Metal Stocks in Society report, the global per capita stock of aluminium in use in society (i.e. in cars, buildings, electronics etc.) is 80 kg. Much of this is in more-developed
countries (350500 kg per capita) rather than less-developed countries (35 kg per capita). Knowing the
per capita stocks and their approximate lifespans is important for planning recycling.

Bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper.
The addition of other metals (usually tin, sometimes arsenic), produces an alloy much harder than
plain copper. The historical period where the archeological record contains many bronze artifacts is
known as the Bronze Age.
Because historical pieces were often made of brasses (copper and zinc) and bronzes with different
compositions, modern museum and scholarly descriptions of older objects increasingly use the more
inclusive term "copper alloy" instead.

History
The discovery of bronze enabled people to create metal objects which were harder and more durable than previously possible. Bronze tools, weapons, armor, and building materials such as decorative tiles were harder and more durable than their stone and copper ("Chalcolithic") predecessors.
Initially, bronze was made out of copper andarsenic, forming arsenic bronze, or from naturally or artificially mixed ores of copper and arsenic. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the major
non-copper ingredient of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BC.[6] Tin bronze was superior to arsenic
bronze in that the alloying process could be more easily controlled, and the resulting alloy was
stronger and easier to cast.
Properties
Typically bronze only oxidizes superficially; once a copper oxide (eventually becoming copper carbonate) layer is formed, the underlying metal is protected from further corrosion. However, if copper
chlorides are formed, a corrosion-mode called "bronze disease" will eventually completely destroy
it.[18] Copper-based alloys have lower melting points than steel or iron, and are more readily produced

from their constituent metals. They are generally about 10 percent heavier than steel, although alloys using aluminium or silicon may be slightly less dense. Bronzes are softer and weaker than
steelbronze springs, for example, are less stiff (and so store less energy) for the same bulk.
Bronze resistscorrosion (especially seawater corrosion) and metal fatigue more than steel and is a
better conductor of heat and electricity than most steels. The cost of copper-base alloys is generally
higher than that of steels but lower than that of nickel-base alloys.

Uses
Bronze was especially suitable for use in boat and ship fittings prior to the wide employment
of stainless steel owing to its combination of toughness and resistance to salt water corrosion.
Bronze is still commonly used in ship propellers and submerged bearings.
It is also widely used for cast bronze sculpture. Many common bronze alloys have the unusual and
very desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling in the finest details of
a mold. Bronze parts are tough and typically used for bearings, clips, electrical connectors and springs.
Bronze also has very low metal-on-metal friction, which made it invaluable for the building of cannon where iron cannonballs would otherwise stick in the barrel.[19] It is still widely used today for
springs, bearings, bushings, automobile transmission pilot bearings, and similar fittings, and is particularly common in the bearings of small electric motors. Phosphor bronze is particularly suited to
precision-grade bearings and springs. It is also used in guitar and piano strings.

Copper
Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) andatomic number 29. It is
a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable;
a freshly exposed surface has a reddish-orange color. It is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, a building material, and a constituent of various metal alloys.
The metal and its alloys have been used for thousands of years. In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, hence the origin of the name of the metal as yprium (metal of Cyprus),
later shortened to uprum. Its compounds are commonly encountered as copper(II) salts, which often impart blue or green colors to minerals such as azurite and turquoise and have been widely used
historically as pigments. Architectural structures built with copper corrode to give
green verdigris (or patina). Decorative art prominently features copper, both by itself and as part of
pigments.

Applications

The major applications of copper are in electrical wires (60%), roofing and plumbing (20%) and industrial machinery (15%). Copper is mostly used as a pure metal, but when a higher hardness is required it is combined with other elements to make analloy (5% of total use) such
as brass and bronze.[15] A small part of copper supply is used in production of compounds for nutritional supplements and fungicides in agriculture.[32][66] Machining of copper is possible, although it is
usually necessary to use an alloy for intricate parts to get good machinability characteristics.

Recycling
Like aluminium, copper is 100% recyclable without any loss of quality, regardless of whether it is in a
raw state or contained in a manufactured product. In volume, copper is the third most recycled metal
after iron and aluminium. It is estimated that 80% of the copper ever mined is still in use today.[27] According to the International Resource Panel's Metal Stocks in Society report, the global per
capita stock of copper in use in society is 3555 kg. Much of this is in more-developed countries
(140300 kg per capita) rather than less-developed countries (3040 kg per capita).
The process of recycling copper is roughly the same as is used to extract copper but requires fewer
steps. High purity scrap copper is melted in a furnace and then reduced and cast into billets and ingots; lower purity scrap is refined by electroplating in a bath of sulfuric acid.

Gold
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a bright yellow dense, soft,
malleable and ductile metal. The properties remain when exposed to air or water. Chemically, gold is
a transition metal and agroup 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements, and is
solid under standard conditions. The metal therefore occurs often in free elemental (native) form,
as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals
as gold compounds, such as with tellurium as calaverite, sylvanite, or krennerite.
As the metallic native element mineral, gold structurally belongs to theisometric copper group. It also
forms a solid solution series with the native element silver (Ag) to which it is often naturally alloyed
(electrum). Other common natural gold alloys are with copper and palladium (Pd).
Gold resists attacks by individual acids, but it can be dissolved by aqua regia(nitro-hydrochloric acid), so named because it dissolves gold. Gold also dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide, which
have been used in mining. It dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys; it is insoluble in nitric
acid, which dissolves silver and base metals, a property that has long been used to confirm the
presence of gold in items, giving rise to the term acid test.
This metal has been a valuable and highly sought-after precious metal forcoinage, jewelry, and other
arts since long before the beginning of recorded history. In the past, the Gold standard has been implemented as a monetary policy, but it was widely supplanted by fiat currency starting in the 1930s.
The last gold certificate and gold coin currencies were issued in the U.S. in 1932. In Europe, most
countries left the gold standard with the start of World War I in 1914 and, with huge war debts, did
not return to gold as a medium of exchange. The value of gold is rooted in its medium rarity, easy
handling, easy smelting, non-corrosiveness, distinct color and non-reactiveness to other elements;
qualities most other metals lack.
A total of 174,100 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, according to GFMS as of
2012.[2] This is roughly equivalent to 5.6 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 9261 m3, or
a cube 21.0 m on a side. The world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40%
in investments, and 10% in industry.[3]
Besides its widespread monetary and symbolic functions, gold has many practical uses
in dentistry, electronics, and other fields. Its high malleability,ductility, resistance to corrosion and
most other chemical reactions, and conductivity of electricity have led to many uses, including electric wiring, colored-glass production, and gold leafing.
Most of the Earth's gold probably lies at its core, the metal's high density having made it sink there in
the planet's youth. Virtually all discovered gold is considered to have been deposited later
by meteorites that contained the element

Production
At the end of 2009, it was estimated that all the gold ever mined totaled 165,000 tonnes.[2] This can
be represented by a cube with an edge length of about 20.28 meters. At $1,600 per troy ounce,
165,000 metric tonnes of gold would have a value of $8.5 trillion.

Iron
Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in
the first transition series.[3] It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of
Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. Its abundance
in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production by fusion in high-massstars, where the
production of nickel-56 (which decays to the most common isotope of iron) is the last nuclear fusion
reaction that is exothermic. Consequently, radioactive nickel is the last element to be produced before
the violent collapse of a supernova scatters precursor radionuclide of iron into space.
Like other group 8 elements, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, 2 to +6, although +2 and
+3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs inmeteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but
is reactive to oxygen andwater. Fresh iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal
air to give hydrated iron oxides, commonly known as rust. Unlike many other metals which
form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides occupy more volume than the metal and thus flake off, exposing fresh surfaces for corrosion.
Iron metal has been used since ancient times, though copper alloys, which have lower melting temperatures, were used even earlier in human history. Pure iron is soft (softer than aluminium), but is unobtainable by smelting. The material is significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities, in particular carbon, from the smelting process. A certain proportion of carbon (between 0.002% and 2.1%) produces steel, which may be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron. Crude iron metal is produced inblast
furnaces, where ore is reduced by coke to pig iron, which has a high carbon content. Further refinement with oxygen reduces the carbon content to the correct proportion to make steel. Steels and low
carbon iron alloys along with other metals (alloy steels) are by far the most common metals in industrial use, due to their great range of desirable properties and the abundance of iron.
Iron chemical compounds have many uses. Iron oxide mixed with aluminium powder can be ignited to
create a thermite reaction, used in welding and purifying ores. Iron forms binary compounds with
the halogens and the chalcogens. Among its organometallic compounds is ferrocene, the
firstsandwich compound discovered.

Iron plays an important role in biology, forming complexes with molecular oxygen
in hemoglobin and myoglobin; these two compounds are commonoxygen transport proteins in vertebrates. Iron is also the metal used at the active site of many important redox enzymes dealing
with cellular respirationand oxidation and reduction in plants and animal

Applications
Iron is the most widely used of all the metals, accounting for 95% of worldwide metal production. Its low
cost and high strength make it indispensable in engineering applications such as the construction of machinery and machine tools, automobiles, the hullsof large ships, and structural components
for buildings. Since pure iron is quite soft, it is most commonly combined with alloying elements to
make steel.
Commercially available iron is classified based on purity and the abundance of additives. Pig iron has
3.54.5% carbon and contains varying amounts of contaminants such as sulfur, silicon and phosphorus.
Pig iron is not a saleable product, but rather an intermediate step in the production of cast iron and
steel. The reduction of contaminants in pig iron that negatively affect material properties, such as sulfur
and phosphorus, yields cast iron containing 24% carbon, 16% silicon, and small amounts
of manganese. It has a melting point in the range of 14201470 K, which is lower than either of its two
main components, and makes it the first product to be melted when carbon and iron are heated together. Its mechanical properties vary greatly and depend on the form the carbon takes in the alloy.

Silver
Silver is a chemical element with symbol Ag (Greek: rguros, Latin:argentum, both from
the Indo-European root *arg- for "grey" or "shining") andatomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it possesses the highest electrical conductivity of any element, the highest thermal conductivityof any metal and is the most reflective metal on the planet. The metal occurs
naturally in its pure, free form (native silver), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals
such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead,
and zinc refining.
While silver has long been valued as a precious metal it is also used in currency coins, solar panels, water filtration, jewelry and ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils (hence the
term silverware) and as an investment in the forms of coins and bullion. Silver is used industrially in
electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings and in catalysis of chemical
reactions. Its compounds are used in photographic film and X-rays. Dilute silver nitrate solutions and

other silver compounds are used asdisinfectants and microbiocides (oligodynamic effect), added
to bandages and wound-dressings, catheters and other medical instruments.

Characteristics
Silver is produced during certain types of supernova explosions by nucleosynthesis from lighter elements through the r-process, a form of nuclear fusion that produces many elements heavier than iron,
of which silver is one.[2]
Silver is a very ductile, malleable (slightly harder than gold), univalent coinage metal, with a brilliant
white metallic luster that can take a high degree of polish. It is the most reflective metal on Earth.[3] It
has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals, even higher than copper, but its greater cost has
prevented it from being widely used in place of copper for electrical purposes. An exception to this is in
radio-frequency engineering, particularly at VHF and higher frequencies, where silver plating to improve electrical conductivity of parts, including wires, is widely employed. During World War II in the
US, 13,540 tons were used in the electromagnets used for enriching uranium, mainly because of the
wartime shortage of copper
Applications
Many well-known uses of silver involve its precious metal properties, including currency, decorative
items, and mirrors. The contrast between its bright white color and other media makes it very useful to
the visual arts. By contrast, fine silver particles form the dense black in photographs and
in silverpoint drawings. It has also long been used to confer high monetary value as objects (such as silver coins and investment bars) or make objects symbolic of high social or political rank. Silver salts have
been used since the Middle Ages to produce a yellow or orange colors to stained glass, and more complex decorative color reactions can be produced by incorporating silver metal in blown, kilnformed or
torch worked glass.