Aluminum, Al has the atomic number 13 and only one stable nuclide, 27Al. It is a lithophile element, concentrated in the Earth's crust. Aluminum is mined from bauxite deposits and reduced to a metallic state. The metal is used in manufacturing and other industries, but it is never found in nature.
Aluminum presents only one oxidation state (III) but yields a range of coordination numbers (4, 5 and 6) in solids and a range of species in natural waters (Al3+, monomeric hydroxo complexes, and polynuclear complexes). The partition of aluminum between these coordination numbers may be used as a tracer of mineral formation conditions (SiAl2O5polymorphs) or of the chemistry of silicate melts and glasses. Aluminum has a low solubility at Earth's surface. This solubility is pH dependent and increases at low pH or in alkaline solution. A second important behavior concerns the increase of solubility in presence of organic ligands: chelating complexes with oxalic acids are responsible for a net...
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Ildefonse, P. (1998). Aluminum . In: Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_6
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