Metals may seem tough, but given enough time even plain old air can be their undoing. Oxygen reacts with it to form metal oxides like rust, but now it turns out a metal oxide may come to the rescue.

In the lab Researchers at TU Wien employed noncontact atomic force microscopy and computational modelling to determine the structure of the aluminium oxide surface. (Courtesy: TU Wien) Determining the ...

It is not uncommon for a Hackaday writer to trawl the comments section of a given article, looking for insights or to learn something new. Often, those with experience in various fields will share ...

Being a metal, aluminium is amenable to mechanical finishing processes commonly used with other metals, and can usually be used with the same equipment without disadvantage, although to exploit the ...

Oxidation can drastically change mechanical properties of nanostructures that typically have large surface-to-volume ratios. However, the underlying mechanisms describing the effect oxidation has on ...

Aluminium can be obtained from aluminium ore (Al 2 O 3) by a process called electrolysis. Oxygen is also produced by this reaction. The balanced equation for this process is: \(\mathbf{2}Al_{2}O_{3}\, ...

To illustrate the aluminium life cycle, what can be more relevant than the myth of the Fountain of Youth. In this myth, old persons enter a fountain of youth and are transformed back to their young ...

The world produced more than 63 million tonnes of aluminium last year, which went into everything from kitchen foil and cans to aircraft. The metal is lightweight, fully recyclable and surprisingly ...

Aluminium is more reactive than carbon so it must be extracted from its compounds using electrolysis. Even though aluminium is more abundant than iron in the Earth's crust, aluminium is more expensive ...