Pure aluminium is a silvery-white metal with many desirable characteristics. It is:

• non toxic
• impervious
• non magnetic
• non sparking
• decorative
• easily formed, machined, and cast
• alloys with small amounts of copper, magnesium, silicon, manganese, and other elements have very useful properties.
• strong. Depending on its purity, for example 99.996 per cent pure aluminium has a tensile strength of about 49 megapascals (MPa), rising to 700 MPa following alloying and suitable heat treatment.
• although not found free in nature, aluminium is an abundant element in the earth's crust.
• low density
• corrosion resistant
• electricity conductor
• non-magnetic
• non-combustible
• highly reflective
• heat barrier and conductor
• malleable
• easily worked

Physical Properties

Density/Specific Gravity (g.cm-3 at 20°C)	2.70
Melting Point (°C)	660
Specific heat at 100 °C, cal.g-1K-1 (Jkg-1K-1)	0.2241 (938)
Latent heat of fusion, cal.g-1 (kJ.kg-1)	94.7 (397.0)
Electrical conductivity at 20°C (% of international annealed copper standard)	64.94
Thermal conductivity (cal.sec-1cm-1K-1)	0.5
Thermal emmisivity at 100°F (%)	3.0
Reflectivity for light, tungsten filament (%)	90.0

These properties can be very significantly altered with the addition of small amounts of alloying materials.

Top of page