What mass of Al could be theoretically be obtained by the electrolysis of 1 tonne of Aluminium oxide?
Answer:
The most common form of Aluminum oxide is alumina, which has the chemical formula Al2O3. That's 2 aluminum atoms for every 3 oxygen atom.
Aluminum has an atomic weight of 27 (26.98), and oxygen has an atomic weight of 16 (you look these up in your periodic table of elements).
2 aluminums + 3 oxygens = 2*27 + 3*16 = 102
The atomic weight of alumina is about 102.
All you can get out of alumina is 2 aluminum atoms, which weigh 54 (2 * 27)
54 out of 102 is 52.9%, so theorectically all you can get is 0.529 tonne of aluminum from 1 tonne of aluminia.
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It takes about 4 lb (2 kg) of bauxite to produce 1 lb (0.5 kg) of aluminum metal.
Aluminum compounds occur in all types of clay, but the ore that is most useful for producing pure aluminum is bauxite. Bauxite consists of 45-60% aluminum oxide, along with various impurities such as sand, iron, and other metals. Although some bauxite deposits are hard rock, most consist of relatively soft dirt that is easily dug from open-pit mines. Australia produces more than one-third of the world's supply of bauxite.
See the following website for a good description of the process of producing aluminum metals.
http://www.madehow.com/volume-5/aluminum...
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