Aluminium is a comparatively new element in human applications. Its source ore, alum, has been known since the 5th century BCE; it was extensively used by the ancients for dyeing and city defense; the former usage would only be more important in medieval Europe. Scientists of the Renaissance figured alum was a salt of a new earth; during the Age of the Enlightenment, it was established that the earth was an oxide of a new metal. Discovery of this new metal was convincingly announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted; his work would be greatly extended on by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.
Pure aluminium metal was very difficult to refine and thus very rare. After its discovery, its price exceeded that of gold; the rarity of aluminium would only be reduced after the first industrial production was initiated by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. Aluminium became, however, much more available to the general public with the Hall-Héroult process developed by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall in 1886 and the Bayer process developed by Austrian chemist Carl Joseph Bayer in 1889. These methods have been used for aluminium production up to the present day.
After these methods were applied for mass production of aluminium, the metal has been extensively used in industry and everyday lives. Aluminium has been used for aviation, architecture, and packaging among others. Its production grew exponentially in the 20th century and aluminium became an exchange commodity in the 1970s. In 1900, the production was 6,800 metric tons; in 2015, it was 57,500,000 tons.
Video History of aluminium
Early history
The history of aluminium has been shaped by usage of alum (hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate, KAl(SO
4)2·12H
2O). The first written record of alum, made by Greek historian Herodotus, dates back to the 5th century BCE. The ancients are known to have used alum as dyeing mordants and as astringents for dressing wounds; in addition to that, alum was used in medicine, as a fire-resistant coating for wood, and in chemical milling. Aluminium metal was unknown to them. Roman historian Pliny the Elder recorded a story about a metal that was bright as silver but much lighter, which was presented to the Emperor Tiberius (reigned 14-37 CE), who had the discoverer killed in order to ensure the metal would not diminish the value of his gold and silver assets. Some sources suggest a possibility that this metal was aluminium; however, this claim has been disputed. It is possible that the Chinese were able to produce aluminium-containing alloys during the reign of the first Jin dynasty (265-420).
After the Crusades, alum was a subject of international commerce; it was indispensable in European fabric industry. Alum was imported to Europe from the eastern Mediterranean until the mid-15th century, when the Ottomans tremendously raised the export taxes. Some alum mines were worked in Catholic Europe, but they could only provide little alum. Thus, when Giovanni da Castro, godson of the Pope Pius II, discovered in 1460 a rich source of alum at Tolfa near Rome, he reported excitedly to his godfather, "today I bring you victory over the Turk".
Maps History of aluminium
Establishing the nature of alum
The nature of alum remained unknown. Around 1530, Swiss physician Paracelsus identified alum as separate from vitriole (sulfates), suggesting it was a salt of an earth of alum. In 1595, German doctor and chemist Andreas Libavius demonstrated that alum and green and blue vitriole were formed by the same acid but different earths; for the undiscovered earth that formed alum, he proposed the name "alumina". In 1702, German chemist Georg Ernst Stahl clearly stated his belief that the unknown base of alum was of the nature of lime or chalk; this mistaken view was shared by many scientists for another half a century. In 1722, German chemist Friedrich Hoffmann announced his belief that alum was a distinct earth. In 1728, French chemist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire suggested that alum was formed by an unknown earth and sulfuric acid; however, he mistakenly believed that burning of that earth yielded silica. In 1739, French chemist Jean Gello proved the equivalence between the earth in clay and the earth resulting from the reaction of alkali on alum. In 1746, German chemist Johann Heinrich Pott showed that the precipitate obtained when an alkali is poured into a solution of alum is quite different from lime and chalk.
In 1754, German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf synthesized the earth of alum (Al2O3) by boiling clay in sulfuric acid and subsequently adding potash. He realized that adding soda, potash, or alkali to a solution of the new earth in sulfuric acid yielded alum. He described the earth as alkaline, as he had discovered it can dissolve in acids when dried. Marggraf also described salts of the earth of alum: the chloride, the nitrate, and the acetate. In 1758, French chemist Pierre Macquer wrote that alumina resembled a metallic earth. In 1767, Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman published an article describing crystallization of alum from a solution obtained from boiling alunite (a hydrated aluminium potassium sulfate mineral, formula KAl3(SO4)2(OH)6) in sulfuric acid followed by addition of potash. He also synthesized alum as a reaction product between sulfates of aluminium and potassium, thereby demonstrating that alum was a double salt. In 1776, German pharmaceutical chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele demonstrated that both alum and silica originate from clay, and that alum does not contain silicon. Geoffroy's mistake was only corrected in 1785 by German chemist and pharmacist Johann Christian Wiegleb who determined that contrary to contemporary belief, the earth of alum could not be synthesized from silica and alkalies.
Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius suggested in 1815 the formula AlO3 for alumina. The correct formula, Al2O3, was established by the German chemist Eilhard Mitscherlich in 1821; this helped Berzelius determine the correct atomic weight of the metal, 27.
Synthesis of metal
In 1760, French chemist Theodor Baron de Henouville declared he believed alumina was a metallic earth and first attempted to reduce it to its metal, at which he was unsuccessful. His means to attempt the reduction were not reported but he claimed he had tried every method of reduction known at the time. It is probable that he mixed alum with carbon or some organic substance, with salt or soda for flux, and heated as highly as possible in a charcoal fire. In 1782, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier wrote that he considered alumina (Al2O3) was an oxide of a metal which had an affinity for oxygen so strong that no known reducing agents could overcome it.
In 1790, Austrian chemists Anton Leopold Ruprecht and Matteo Tondi repeated Baron's experiments, significantly increasing the temperatures; they found small metallic particles, which they believed to be the sought-after metal, but later experiments by other chemists showed these were only iron phosphide from impurities in charcoal and bone ash. German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth commented in an aftermath, "if there exists an earth which has been put in conditions where its metallic nature should be disclosed, if it had such, an earth exposed to experiments suitable for reducing it, tested in the hottest fires by all sorts of methods, on a large as well as on a small scale, that earth is certainly alumina, yet no one has yet perceived its metallization." Later, Lavoisier in 1794 and French chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau in 1795 melted alumina to a white enamel in a charcoal fire fed by pure oxygen but found no metal. American chemist Robert Hare in 1802 melted alumina with an oxyhydrogen blowpipe, also obtaining the enamel, but still found no metal.
In 1807, British chemist Humphry Davy attempted to electrolyze alumina with alkaline batteries; in fact, he did electrolyze it, but the metal formed contained alkali metals potassium and sodium and Davy had no means to separate the desired metal from these two. He then tried to heat alumina with potassium metal; some potassium oxide indeed was formed, but he was unable to find the sought-after metal. In 1808, Davy set up a different experiment on electrolysis of alumina; he did experimentally establish that alumina was subject to decomposition in the electric arc, but he was unable to separate the metal from iron, with which it alloyed. Finally Davy tried yet another electrolysis experiment, seeking to collect the metal on iron, but was again unable to separate the two. During his experiments, Davy suggested the metal be named alumium in 1808 and aluminum in 1812, thus producing the modern name. Other scientists used the spelling aluminium, though the former spelling would regain usage in the United States in decades.
In 1813, American chemist Benjamin Silliman repeated Hare's experiment and while he did at one moment obtain small granules of the sought-after metal, it almost immediately burned.
Production of the metal was first claimed in 1824 by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted. He reacted anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium amalgam, yielding a lump of metal that looked similar to tin. He presented his results and demonstrated a sample of the new metal in 1825. In 1826, he wrote that "aluminium has a metallic luster and somewhat grayish color and breaks down water very slowly"; this hints that he had obtained an aluminium-potassium alloy rather than pure aluminium. Ørsted himself was not convinced that he had obtained aluminium and gave little importance to his discovery; a different source suggests he was unable to continue his research for financial reasons. As a result, and because he published his work in a Danish magazine unknown to the general European public, he is often not credited as the element's discoverer; some earlier sources went further and claimed Ørsted had not in fact isolated aluminium.
Berzelius attempted to isolate the metal in 1825; he carefully washed the potassium analog of the base salt in cryolite in a crucible. He had correctly identified the formula of this salt prior to the experiment as K3AlF6. He found no metal; however, his experiment came very close to succeeding, and was successfully reproduced many times later. Berzelius's mistake was in using an excess of potassium, which made the solution too alkaline and thus dissolved all the newly formed aluminium.
German chemist Friedrich Wöhler repeated Ørsted's experiments but did not identify any aluminium. (The reason for this inconsistency was only discovered in 1921.) He conducted a similar experiment in 1827, mixing anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium, and produced a powder of aluminium. In 1845, he was able to produce small pieces of the metal and described some of its physical properties. Wöhler's description of the properties indicates that he obtained impure aluminium.
Rare metal
As Wöhler's method could not yield large amounts of aluminium, the metal remained rare; its cost exceeded that of gold.
French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville announced an industrial method of aluminium production in 1854 at the Paris Academy of Sciences. Aluminium trichloride could be reduced by sodium, which was more convenient and less expensive than potassium, which Wöhler had used. Subsequently, bars of aluminium were exhibited for the first time to the general public at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. The metal was presented there as "the silver from clay", and this name was soon widely used. Napoleon III of France subsidized Deville's research, which cost in total about 20 annual outcomes of an ordinary family. Prior to the exposition, Napoleon is reputed to have held a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminium utensils, while the others made do with gold. From 1855 to 1859, the price of aluminium dropped by an order of magnitude, from US$500 to $40 per pound. Even then, aluminium was still not of great purity and produced aluminium differed in properties by sample.
In 1856, Deville, the Moran brothers, and the Rousseau brothers established the world's first industrial production of aluminium at the Tissier brothers' smelter in Rouen. Deville's smelter moved in 1856-1857 to La Glacière, Nanterre, and finally to Salindres. The smelter was soon acquired by the French company Pechiney and the Compagnie d'Alais et de la Camargue, which later became world's largest in chemical aluminium production. The technology at the factory continued to improve, and the output in Salindres in 1872 exceeded that in Nanterre in 1857 by 900 times. The factory in Salindres used bauxite as the primary aluminium ore; some chemists, including Deville, sought to employ cryolite, but none surpassed the existing techniques. British engineer William Gerhard set up a plant employing cryolite as the primary raw material in Battersea, London, in 1856, but technical and financial difficulties forced closure of the plant in three years.
Other chemists also sought to industrialize the production of aluminium. British ironmaster Isaac Lowthian Bell started producing aluminium in 1860, continuing until 1874. During the opening of his factory, he waved to the crowd with a unique and costly aluminium top hat. British engineer James Fern Webster launched industrial production of aluminium by reduction with sodium in 1882; his aluminium was much purer than Deville's. A number of other production sites were set up in the 1880s. However, all were made obsolete by electrolytic production.
At the next fair in Paris in 1867, the visitors were presented with aluminium wire and foil; by the time of the next fair in 1878, aluminium had become a symbol of the future.
Electrolytic production
Aluminium was first synthesized electrolytically in 1854 independently by Deville and German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. Their electrolysis methods did not become the basis for industrial production of aluminium because electrical supplies were inefficient at the moment; this would only change with the invention of the dynamo by Belgian engineer Zénobe-Théophile Gramme in 1870 and the three-phase current by Russian engineer Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky in 1889.
The first industrial large-scale production method was independently developed by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall; it is now known as the Hall-Héroult process. Héroult long could not find enough interest in his invention as demand for aluminium was still small; the factory in Salindres did not wish to improve the process they employed. Héroult with his companions founded Aluminium Industrie Aktien Gesellschaft in 1888. That year, they started industrial production of aluminium bronze in Neuhausen am Rheinfall in 1888. This production was only active for a year; but during that time, Société électrométallurgique française was founded in Paris. The society purchased Héroult's patents and appointed him to the position of director of a smelter in Isère, which would produce on a large scale aluminium bronze at the initiation and pure aluminium in a few months.
At the same time, Hall invented the same process and successfully tested it; he then sought to employ it for a large-scale production; for that, however, the existing smelter would have to radically change their production methods, which they were not willing to do in part because a mass production aluminium would then immediately drop the price of the metal. He started the Pittsburgh Reduction Company in 1888 where he initiated mass production of aluminium. In the coming years, this technology was improved on and new factories were constructed.
The Hall-Héroult process converts alumina into the metal; Austrian chemist Carl Joseph Bayer discovered a way of purifying bauxite to yield alumina in 1889, now known as the Bayer process. Modern production of the aluminium metal is based around the Bayer and Hall-Héroult processes. The Hall-Héroult process was further improved in 1920 by a team led by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Söderberg; this improvement greatly increased the world output of aluminium.
Mass usage
Give me 30,000 tonnes of aluminium, and I will win the war.
Prices of aluminium dropped, and aluminium had become widely used in jewelry, many everyday items, eyeglass frames, and optical instruments by the early 1890s. Aluminium tableware began to be produced in the late 19th century and gradually supplanted copper and cast iron tableware in the first decades of the 20th century. Aluminium foil was popularized at that time. Aluminium is soft and light; it was soon discovered, however, that alloying it with other metals could increase its hardness while preserving its low density. Aluminium's ability to form alloys with other metals found many uses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance, aluminium bronze is applied to make flexible bands, sheets, and wire and is widely employed in the shipbuilding and aviation industries. During World War I, major governments demanded large shipments of aluminium for light strong airframes. They often subsidized factories and the necessary electrical supply systems. Aviation during that time employed a new aluminium alloy, duralumin, invented in 1903 by German materials scientist Alfred Wilm. Likewise, the civil aviation industry has used aluminium for airframes as well. Aluminium recycling started in the early 20th century and has been used extensively since as aluminium is not impaired by recycling and thus can be recycled repeatedly. Overall production of aluminium peaked during the war: while the world production of aluminium in 1900 was 6,800 metric tons, the annual production first exceeded 100,000 tons in 1916. This peak would be followed by a decline, later again changed to a swift growth.
During the first half of the 20th century, the real price for aluminium continuously fell from $14,000 in 1900 to $2,340 in 1948 (in 1998 United States dollars), with some exceptions such as the sharp price rise during the World War I. By the mid-20th century, aluminium had become a part of everyday lives, also becoming an essential component of houseware. Aluminium freight cars first appeared in 1931. Their lighter weight allowed them to carry more cargo. Aluminium's corrosion resistance established it as a construction material for boats during the 1930s; it received wide recognition in the early 1950s. During the 1930s, aluminium emerged as a civil engineering material, with buildings using for both basic construction and interior, and advanced its use in military engineering, for both airplanes and land armor vehicle engines. During World War II, the production peaked again: world production first exceeded 1,000,000 metric tons in 1941. The United Kingdom started an ambitious program of aluminium recycling; the Minister of Aircraft Production appealed to the public to donate any household aluminium for airplane building. The Soviet Union received 328,000 metric tons of aluminium with the Lend-Lease policy; this aluminium would be used in aircraft and tank engines. Without these shipments, the efficiency of the Soviet aircraft industry would have fallen by over a half. The production would again fall after the intensification caused by the war but then would rise again.
Exchange commodity
In the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, the Space Race began. Earth's first artificial satellite, launched in 1957, consisted of two separate aluminium semi-spheres joined together and all subsequent space vehicles have been made of aluminium. The aluminium can was invented in 1956 and employed as a storage for drinks in 1958. In the 1960s, aluminium was employed for production of wires and cables. High-speed trains, starting in the 1970s, commonly use aluminium for its lightness. For the same reason, the aluminium content of cars is growing.
By 1955, the market had been mostly divided by the Six Majors: Alcoa (successor of Hall's Pittsburgh Reduction Company), Alcan (originated as a part of that company), Reynolds, Kaiser, Pechiney (successor of Pechiney and the Compagnie d'Alais et de la Camargue that bought Deville's smelter), and Alusuisse (successor of Héroult's Aluminium Industrie Aktien Gesellschaft), with their combined share of the market equaling 86%. From 1945, aluminium consumption grew by almost 10% each year for nearly three decades, gaining ground in building applications, electric cables, basic foils, and the aircraft industry. In the early 1970s, an additional boost came from the development of aluminium beverage cans. Real prices continued to decline until this time as extraction and processing costs were lowered over technological progress and the increased production of aluminium, which first exceeded 10,000,000 metric tons in 1971.
In the 1970s, the increased demand for aluminium made it an exchange commodity; it entered the London Metal Exchange, world's oldest industrial metal exchange, in 1978. After aluminium became an exchange commodity, aluminium has been traded for United States dollars and its price fluctuated along with the exchange rates of the currency. The need to exploit lower-grade poorer quality deposits and the use of fast increasing input costs (above all, energy) increased the net cost of aluminium; the real price began to grow in the 1970s with the rise of energy cost.
This along with the change of tariffs and taxes started redistribution of the shares of world producers: while the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan accounted for nearly 60% of the world's primary production in 1972 (and their combined share of consumption of primary aluminium was also close to 60%), their combined share only slightly exceeded 10% in 2012. Production moved from the United States, Japan, and Western Europe to Australia, Canada, the Middle East, Russia, and China, where production was cheaper. Production costs in the late 20th century changed because of advances in technology, lower energy prices, exchange rates of the United States dollar, and alumina prices. The BRIC countries' combined share grew in the first decade of the 21st century from 32.6% to 56.5% in primary production and 21.4% to 47.8% in primary consumption. China is accumulating an especially large share of world's production thanks to abundance of resources, cheap energy, and governmental stimuli; it also increased its consumption share from 2% in 1972 to 40% in 2010. The only other country with a two-digit percentage was the United States with 11%; no other country exceeded 5%. In the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, most aluminium was consumed in transportation, engineering, construction, and packaging.
The world output continued to grow: in 2013, the annual production of aluminium exceeded 50,000,000 metric tons. In 2015, it was record 57,500,000 tons.
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Drozdov, Andrey (2007). Aluminium: The Thirteenth Element (PDF). RUSAL Library. ISBN 978-5-91523-002-5.
- McNeil, Ian, ed. (1990). An Encyclopaedia of the history of technology. Routledge. pp. 104-106. ISBN 978-0-415-01306-2.
- Nappi, Carmine (2013). The global aluminium industry 40 years from 1972 (PDF) (Report). International Aluminium Institute. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
- Richards, Joseph William (1896). Aluminium: Its history, occurrence, properties, metallurgy and applications, including its alloys (3 ed.). Henry Carey Baird & Co.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments