Education Science
Showing Off Aluminum’s Natural Reactivity via Gallium Alloy

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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Very interesting vid from 18-year-old Hayden Parker, who impressed me greatly with his animated chemistry demonstrations at Maker Faire. Metallic aluminum can be dissolved in liquid gallium to create an aluminum-bearing alloy that is liquid at ambient conditions. Because it can flow in the alloy, the aluminum cannot form a stable passive oxide layer and will react violently with water, which nicely demonstrates the normally-hidden high natural reactivity of metallic aluminum.

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1 thought on “Showing Off Aluminum’s Natural Reactivity via Gallium Alloy”

  1. ce qui est dégagé c’est de l’hydrogène qui récupéré peut donner lieu à nombre d’utilisations

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By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan