ALUMINUM

Aluminium or aluminum (in North American English) is a chemical element in the boron
group with symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft,
nonmagnetic, ductile metal. Aluminium is the third most abundant element in the Earth's
crust (after oxygen and silicon) and its most abundant metal. Aluminium makes up about 8% of
the crust by mass, though it is less common in the mantle below. Aluminium metal is so
chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments.
Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals. The chief ore of aluminium
is bauxite.
Aluminium is remarkable for the metal's low density and its ability to resist corrosion through
the phenomenon of passivation. Aluminium and its alloys are vital to the aerospace industry and
important in transportation and structures, such as building facades and window
frames.The oxides and sulfates are the most useful compounds of aluminium.
Despite its prevalence in the environment, no known form of life uses
aluminium salts metabolically, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of
these salts' abundance, the potential for a biological role for them is of continuing interest, and
studies continue
 IRON

Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is
a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming
much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust.
Its abundance in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production by fusion in high-
mass stars, where it is the last element to be produced with release of energy before the violent
collapse of a supernova, which scatters the iron into space.
Like the other group 8 elements, ruthenium and osmium, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation
states, −2 to +6, although +2 and +3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs
in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but is reactive to oxygen and water. Fresh
iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal air to give hydrated iron oxides,
commonly known as rust. Unlike the metals that form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides
occupy more volume than the metal and thus flake off, exposing fresh surfaces for corrosion.
 STEEL
Steel is an alloy of iron and other elements, primarily carbon, that is widely used in construction
and other applications because of its high tensile strength and low cost. Steel's base metal is iron,
which is able to take on two crystalline forms (allotropic forms), body centered cubic and face
centered cubic (FCC), depending on its temperature. It is the interaction of those allotropes with
the alloying elements, primarily carbon, that gives steel and cast iron their range of unique
properties. In the body-centered cubic arrangement, there is an iron atom in the center of each
cube, and in the face-centered cubic, there is one at the center of each of the six faces of the
cube. Carbon, other elements, and inclusions within iron act as hardening agents that prevent the
movement of dislocations that otherwise occur in the crystal lattices of iron atoms.
The carbon in typical steel alloys may contribute up to 2.1% of its weight. Varying the amount of
alloying elements, their presence in the steel either as solute elements, or as precipitated phases,
retards the movement of those dislocations that make iron comparatively ductile and weak, and
thus controls its qualities such as the hardness, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting
steel. Steel's strength compared to pure iron is only possible at the expense of iron's ductility, of
which iron has an excess.
 COPPER

Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is
a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly
exposed surface of pure copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat
and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such
as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins,
and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.
Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed
to needing extraction from an ore. This led to very early human use, from c. 8000 BC. It was the
first metal to be smelted from its ore, c. 5000 BC, the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold,
c. 4000 BC and the first metal to be purposefully alloyed with another metal, tin, to
create bronze, c. 3500 BC.
 TIN

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (for Latin: stannum) and atomic number 50, is
a post-transition metal in group 14 of the periodic table. It is obtained chiefly from
the mineral cassiterite, which contains tin dioxide, SnO2. Tin shows a chemical similarity to both
of its neighbors in group 14, germanium and lead, and has two main oxidation states, +2 and the
slightly more stable +4. Tin is the 49th most abundant element and has, with 10 stable isotopes,
the largest number of stable isotopes in the periodic table, thanks to its magic number of protons.
It has two main allotropes: at room temperature, the stable allotrope is β-tin, a silvery-
white, malleable metal, but at low temperatures it transforms into the less dense grey α-tin,
which has the diamond cubic structure. Metallic tin is not easily oxidized in air.
 ZINC

Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element
in group 12 of the periodic table. In some respects zinc is chemically similar to magnesium: both
elements exhibit only one normal oxidation state (+2), and the Zn2+and Mg2+ ions are of similar
size. Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in Earth's crust and has five stable isotopes. The
most common zinc ore is sphalerite (zinc blende), a zinc sulfide mineral. The largest workable
lodes are in Australia, Asia, and the United States. Zinc is refined by froth flotation of
the ore, roasting, and final extraction using electricity (electro winning).
 BRASS

Brass is a metal alloy made of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied
to create a range of brasses with varying properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two
constituents may replace each other within the same crystal structure.
Brass is used for decoration for its bright gold-like appearance; for applications where
low friction is required such as locks, gears, bearings, doorknobs, ammunition casings and
valves; for plumbing and electrical applications; and extensively in brass musical
instruments such as horns and bells where a combination of high workability (historically with
hand tools) and durability is desired. It is also used in zippers. Brass is often used in situations in
which it is important that sparks not be struck, such as in fittings and tools used near flammable
or explosive materials.
 BRONZE

Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12% tin and often with
the addition of other metals (such as aluminium, manganese, nickel or zinc) and sometimes non-
metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or silicon. These additions produce a range of
alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as
stiffness, ductility, or machinability.
The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as
the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium
BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time; everywhere it gradually
spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300
BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, though bronze continued to be much more
widely used than it is in modern times.
Because historical pieces were often made of brasses (copper and zinc) and bronzes with
different compositions, modern museum and scholarly descriptions of older objects increasingly
use the more inclusive term "copper alloy" instead.
 CHROMIUM

Chromium is a chemical element with symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element
in Group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard and brittle metal which takes a high polish,
resists tarnishing, and has a high melting point. The name of the element is derived from
the Greek word chrōma, meaning color because many of the compounds are intensely colored.
Ferrochromium alloy is commercially produced from chromite
by silicothermic or aluminothermic reactions and chromium metal
by roasting and leaching processes followed by reduction with carbon and then aluminium.
Chromium metal is of high value for its high corrosion resistance and hardness. A major
development was the discovery that steel could be made highly resistant to corrosion and
discoloration by adding metallic chromium to form stainless steel. Stainless steel and chrome
plating (electroplating with chromium) together comprise 85% of the commercial use.
 NICKEL

Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white
lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard
and ductile. Pure nickel, powdered to maximize the reactive surface area, shows a significant
chemical activity, but larger pieces are slow to react with air under standard conditions because
an oxide layer forms on the surface and prevents further corrosion (passivation). Even so,
pure native nickel is found in Earth's crust only in tiny amounts, usually in ultramafic rocks, and
in the interiors of larger nickel–iron meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when outside
Earth's atmosphere.
Meteoric nickel is found in combination with iron, a reflection of the origin of those elements as
major end products of supernova nucleosynthesis. An iron–nickel mixture is thought to compose
Earth's inner core.
 LEAD

Lead (/lɛd/), from the Old English léad, is a chemical element with atomic number 82
and symbol Pb (after the Latin, plumbum). When freshly cut it has a bluish-white color that
soon tarnishes to a dull gray upon exposure to air. Lead is a soft, malleable, and heavy metal; it's
density of 11.34 g/cm3 exceeds that of most common materials. Lead has the second highest
atomic number of all practically stable elements. As such, it is located at the end of some decay
chains of heavier elements, which in part accounts for its relative abundance: its stability exceeds
those of other similarly-numbered elements.
Lead is a post-transition metal and is relatively inert unless powdered. Its weak metallic
character is illustrated by its general amphoteric nature: lead and lead oxides react with both
acids and bases. It also displays a marked tendency toward covalent bonding. Compounds of lead
are most commonly found in the +2 oxidation state, rather than +4, unlike the lighter group 14
elements; exceptions are mostly limited to organolead compounds. Like the lighter group 14
elements, lead shows a tendency to bond to itself; it can form complicated chain, ring, and
polyhedral structures.