The Discovery of Aluminum

BerzeHus and Davy tried to isolate metalHc aluminum by fused salt electrolysis with the voltaic pile. They failed It was instead in Denmark that the metal became visible for the first time. The year was 1825. 

Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851) was born on the Danish island of Langeland. He studied, mainly aU by himself, to such an extent that he became qualified for studies at the University of Copenhagen. At the age of 17 he began to study sdence, phi- 

When he set to work in 1825 with the aluminum problem, he was in fact preparing experiments with the voltaic pile. He was looking for a metalHc element in alumina. 

He carefully mixed charcoal and aluminum oxide and warmed them to red heat in a tube furnace. At the inlet of chlorine gas, aluminum chloride was formed and vaporized. Outside the furnace it was condensed in potassium amalgam, and aluminum amalgam was formed. When the mercury was distilled off, in the absence of air, a metal, similar to tin, remained. The metal, aluminum, was discovered. 

Friedrich Wohler made critical comments on Oersted s investigation and questioned whether he really had obtained aluminum after the mercury distillation. Careful examinations of Oersted s notes and recapitulations of the original experiments confirmed that Oersted had succeeded in isolating aluminum. In all international tables of element discoverers its is Hans Christian Oersted alone who is attached to the discovery of aluminum. 

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The synthesis of the first dinuclear alumoxane (4) containing a terminal hydroxide was accomplished (26) soon after the discovery of aluminum dihydroxide 3, just by changing the reaction stoichiometry (Scheme 3). It is assumed that excess LAII2 generates LAl(OH)2 and LAI (0H)NH2. Condensation of the two leads to the elimination of ammonia and the formation of the alumoxane dihydroxide [LAl(0H)]2([r-0). 

Liebig, too, encouraged his friend to take action against the French aluminum spectacle, and to set the story of the discovery of aluminum straight. Wohler responded to him as follows ... 

A milestone was achieved with the discovery of aluminum phosphate molecular sieves [1]. These compounds have neutral frameworks of very low acidity. Thus, their use as catalysts and to some extent as sorbants is limited. However, it was subsequently shown that silicon could be incorporated into the aluminum phosphate framework [3-4] (SAPO s). This discovery was followed in short order by introduction of many metals (Mg2+, Mn +, Fe -, Cq2+, Zn2+) [5-6] into the framework by isomorphous... 

The discovery of aluminum phosphate molecular sieves has fueled the search for new sieve like materials. This search has been amply rewarded. Newsom and Vaughan [13] were able to prepare new gallosilicate phases and gallophosphates have also been prepared [14]. One of the most interesting and startling discoveries is that of zincophosphate and beryllophosphate molecular sieves [15]. They can be prepared under very mild conditions [16] and have structures which closely resemble those of aluminosilicate zeolites [16-17]. These compounds have frameworks [(Zn02)(P02)] which are isoelectronic with the aluminosilicate framework... 

Hall capitalized on his discovery by founding a company for the manufacture of aluminum. That company became immensely successfial, eventually growing into Alcoa. It made the Halls very rich. 

The flexibility of the synthesis method provides for opportunities to incorporate other elements besides silicon. One of the first elements added was Al (11). Soon after the discovery of the silicon based TUD-1, it was found that adding suitable aluminum sources to the above procedure yielded very similar Al-Si-TUD-1 stractures. Since then, many other TUD-1 variants have been prepared. Most TUD-1 variants are either Si-TUD-1 or an M-Si version, where M is another element (e.g.,... 

The discovery of diradicals in sulfuric acid or Lewis acid solutions of bianthrone and thianthrene raises the possibility of acid-catalyzed radical reactions for any unsaturated compound.448 Anything that increases the equilibrium concentration of the diradical should promote radical reactions. These results are important because previous to their discovery few chemists would have hesitated to say that a reaction catalyzed by sulfuric acid or aluminum trichloride, for example, was an entirely ionic one. Now we would not want to venture such an opinion without other reasons. 

The discovery of the new class of high-silica zeolites "pentasil" during the last decade has attracted considerable interest due to the important applications of these zeolites in catalysis. The best known member of this family of zeolites is ZSM-5, developed in the Mobil laboratories. The unusual properties of pentasil zeolites have rekindled the interest in other high-silica zeolites, prepared by dea-lumination of low-silica zeolites. In this paper we shall review the preparation methods of aluminum-deficient zeolites, and shall discuss the properties of these materials, with emphasis on recent advances in their characterization. 

Since the discovery by Ziegler and Natta that transition metal complexes, in the presence of aluminum alkyl compounds, can efficiently catalyze the polymerization of ethylene and propylene, significant efforts have been devoted to the development of new catalytic systems for polymerization of olefins. One of the... 

The chemical laboratory at the Ecole Normale offered little excitement in the way of theory in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Under Deville, three fundamental themes in inorganic chemistry had been pursued the preparation of aluminum the exploration of metals in the platinum series and the discovery of equilibrium in gaseous milieus, including the study of the dissociation of elementary vapors at high temperatures.27 Neither Deville nor his pupils were interested in general theories. As noted in chapter 3, Lespieau later commented,... 

So you can see why branching in the polymerization process can be a problem—the symmetry is affected. And you can get a hint why PP was commercialized long after polyethylene. The chemistry and catalysis are a lot more demanding. Thats why Giulio Natra won the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the field of stereo-catalysis, the discovery of the effects of titanium chloride and organo-aluminum compounds. 

After commenting on the discovery of gallium, scandium, and germanium (eka-aluminum, eka-boron, and eka-silicon), D. I. Mendeleev had written in 1891, I foresee some more new elements, but not with the same certitude as before. I shall give one example, and yet I do not see it quite distinctly (7). He had then proceeded to describe an undiscovered dvi tellurium with an atomic weight of about 212. Since polonium resembles tellurium and has an estimated atomic weight of about 210, it is probably the realization of Mendeleev s dvi tellurium. ... 

Slurry explosives are based upon a system consisting of oxidizing agents and nonexplosive fuel materials. The explosive energy derived from these unique explosives is the result of extremely rapid reduction-oxidation reactions between the fuels and oxidizers upon initiation by a high explosive booster. A slurry explosive can be visualized as a colloidal system which comprises basically two phases, a dispersion phase and a dispersed phase. Tire fundamental concept which led to the discovery of slurry explosives was that an aqueous oxidizer solution (eg ammonium nitrate) could be used as the dispersion medium of a colloidal system to disperse the required fuel (aluminum) and thereby achieve a multiplicity of beneficial results... 

Significant developments were achieved with the discovery in the 1970s and 1980s of varied room-temperature ionic liquids.41,42 These were organoaluminate ionic liquids, typically a mixture of quaternary ammonium salts with aluminum chloride. A major breakthrough came in 1992 by the discovery of air- and moisture-stable ionic liquids.43 1,3-Dialkylimidazolium cations (1), specifically,... 

Different historians ascribe different dates to the discovery of the first coordination compound. Perhaps the earliest known of all coordination compounds is the bright-red alizarin dye, a calcium aluminum chelate compound of hydroxyanthraquinone. It was first used in India and known to the ancient Persians and Egyptians long before it was used by the Greeks and Romans. Joseph s coat of many colors may possibly have been treated with it. 

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