铝是活泼金属，铜大缸价格，在干燥空气中铝的表面立即形成厚约50埃的致密氧化膜，使铝不会进一步氧化并能耐水；但铝的粉末与空气混合则极易燃烧；熔融的铝能与水猛烈反应；高温下能将许多金属氧化物还原为相应的金属；铝是两性的，即易溶于强碱，也能溶于稀酸。

Aluminum is an active metal, which forms a dense oxide film about 50 A thick on the surface of aluminium in dry air immediately, so that aluminium will not be further oxidized and can resist water; however, aluminium powder mixed with air is extremely flammable; molten aluminium can react violently with water; many metal oxides can be reduced to corresponding metals at high temperature; aluminium is amphoteric. It is easy to dissolve in strong alkali and dilute acid.

分析一个奇特的金属装饰，发现于一位中国3世纪的军事领袖周处的墓葬，发现其含有85%的铝。它是如何产生的至今还是一个未解之谜。在18世纪末，氧化铝被发现包含一种金属，但都没能从中提取出来。Humphry Davy使用电流来提取了钠和钾，从他们所谓的“泥土”（氧化物）中，但他不能用同样的方法提取铝。第一个制取出它的人是哥本哈根（丹麦首都）的Hans Christian Oersted于1827年，并第一次使用钠代替钾获得了纯净的铝。

An analysis of a peculiar metal decoration reveals that the tomb of a Chinese military leader in the 3rd century contains 85% aluminium. How it came into being is still an unsolved mystery. At the end of the eighteenth century, alumina was found to contain a metal, but it could not be extracted. Humphry Davy uses electricity to extract sodium and potassium from what they call "soil" (oxides), but he cannot extract aluminium in the same way. The first person to produce it was Hans Christian Oersted of Copenhagen (capital of Denmark) in 1827, and the first use of sodium instead of potassium to obtain pure aluminium.