Light, long-lasting, and practical — these are the qualities that make aluminium one of the key engineering materials of our time. We find aluminium in the houses we live in, in the motors we use for transportation, in the trains and airplanes that carry us across long distances, in the mobile phones and computers we use every day, inside refrigerator cabinets, and in modern interior designs. Yet, just two hundred years ago, very little was known about this metal.

Aluminium is a silvery-white metal and the 13th element in the periodic table. One surprising fact about aluminium is that it is the most abundant metal on Earth, making up more than 8% of the planet’s crust. It is also the third most common chemical element on Earth, after oxygen and silicon.

However, because it easily bonds with other elements, pure aluminium does not occur naturally in nature. Today, aluminium sulfates are widely used in water purification, cooking, medicine, cosmetics, the chemical industry, and many other sectors.