Aluminium
Aluminio (Al, Z=13)
- Date
- 1825 · confidence high
- Place
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Credited to
- Hans Christian Ørsted
- People
- 👤 Hans Christian Ørsted1777–1851👤 Humphry Davy1778–1829
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Ørsted obtained impure aluminium by reducing aluminium chloride with potassium amalgam; Wöhler isolated it as a pure powder in 1827.
For decades it was more expensive than gold, until industrial electrolysis.
What it led to
- The Hall-Héroult process (1886) and cheap aluminium
- Aviation and lightweight packaging
- High-voltage power lines
Built on
- Isolation of potassium
- Alumina identified by Marggraf