Metallurgy – Notes

Metallurgy – Activity Series

The Activity Series of metals refers to the arrangement of metals in decreasing order of their reactivity.

Reduction is the process in which metal oxides get reduced to metals by reducing agents like carbon, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, etc.

Metals at the bottom of the activity series are not reactive and can be extracted by reduction.

Metals at the top of the active series are highly reactive and can be extracted through electrolysis

The important ores of aluminium are:

• Bauxite
• Corundum
• Cryolite

The extraction of aluminium involves three steps:

• Purification of bauxite by Bayer’s process.
• Electrolytic reduction of anhydrous alumina by Hall and Herault’s process.