Carbon in aluminium

Although the solubility of carbon in aluminium is as small as 0.1-0.01 at.% (400 - 40 Mg/g) (1), carbon is of some importance for the production of aluminium, as an indicator for possible faults in the operation of electrolysis cells. When the metal contains carbon even at the level of a few Mg/g only, defects may appear in the sheets obtained by rolling. 

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Just as the saturated solubility of sugar in water is limited, so the solid solubility of element B in metal A may also be limited, or may even be so low as to be negligible, as for example with lead in iron or carbon in aluminium. There is extensive interstitial solid solubility only when the solvent metal is a transition element and when the diameter of the solute atoms is < 0 6 of the diameter of the solvent atom. The Hume-Rothery rules state that there is extensive substitutional solid solubility of B in >1 only if ... 

The procedure is described in detail under "the determination of carbon in aluminium" (8). 

On standing, gelatinous aluminium hydroxide, which may initially have even more water occluded than indicated above, is converted into a form insoluble in both acids and alkalis, which is probably a hydrated form of the oxide AI2O3. Both forms, however, have strong adsorptive power and will adsorb dyes, a property long used by the textile trade to dye rayon. The cloth is first impregnated with an aluminium salt (for example sulphate or acetate) when addition of a little alkali, such as sodium carbonate, causes aluminium hydroxide to deposit in the pores of the material. The presence of this aluminium hydroxide in the cloth helps the dye to bite by ad sorbing it—hence the name mordant (Latin mordere = to bite) dye process. 

Aluminium nitride can also be prepared by heating a mixture of aluminium oxide and carbon in nitrogen in an electric arc furnace ... 

The demand for electrode binder pitch has grown as aluminium output has expanded and the requirement for aluminium smelting is now between 1.5 and 2 x 10 t /yr. In Japan pitch is used for mixing with coal for carbonization in coke ovens to make metallurgical coke. 

Furthermore, even though a consistent quality of beryllium is now produced, the chemical composition falls far short of the standards found for instance in aluminium generally, the main impurities consist of about 1% of beryllia at grain boundaries, about 0-15% of iron and 0-05-01% of other elements such as silicon, aluminium and carbon. 

Elsewhere, in a series of Japanese patents, mixtures of resorcinol + sodium nitrate, glycerine + sodium nitrate, lithium hydroxide + tungstate, etc., have been claimed to be effective. An example of the use of inhibited cooling mixtures of low toxicity is provided by a patent which describes a mixture of silicate-I- polyphosphate -I- a saccharide, e.g. sucrose or fructose, as the inhibitor formulation in a propylene glycol -I- potassium-hydrogen-carbonate mixture used in aluminium cooler boxes for ice-cream. 

The discussion so far has been limited to the structure of pure metals, and to the defects which exist in crysteds comprised of atoms of one element only. In fact, of course, pure metals are comparatively rare and all commercial materials contain impurities and, in many cases also, deliberate alloying additions. In the production of commercially pure metals and of alloys, impurities are inevitably introduced into the metal, e.g. manganese, silicon and phosphorus in mild steel, and iron and silicon in aluminium alloys. However, most commercial materials are not even nominally pure metals but are alloys in which deliberate additions of one or more elements have been made, usually to improve some property of the metal examples are the addition of carbon or nickel and chromium to iron to give, respectively, carbon and stainless steels and the addition of copper to aluminium to give a high-strength age-hardenable alloy. 

The interaction of saturated hydrocarbons with carbon monoxide-aluminium chloride is of great interest. In this case the CO group is inserted into the chain,1 e.g. 

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