In the 19th Century aluminium failed, unlike plastics, to pass itself off as a substitute material. When accepted on its own terms aluminium made its reputation based on its aesthetic neutrality. It is also popular for its lightness, malleability and ability to be recycled and ability to be transformed through printing and colouring. More recently aluminium has become part of aesthetic statemen...

Traditional fibre-optic drawing involves a thermally mediated geometric scaling where both the fibre materials and their relative positions are identical to those found in the fibre preform. To date, all thermally drawn fibres are limited to the preform composition and geometry. Here, we fabricate a metre-long crystalline silicon-core, silica-cladded fibre from a preform that does not contain a...

Electron Rutherford back scattering (ERBS) is a new spectroscopy for determining the composition of surfaces. In this work the surface sensitivity of ERBS was investigated by changing the entrance and exit angle of the electron beam while keeping the scattering angle constant. It was found that in this way the surface sensitivity of the technique can be varied considerably. We use aluminium as ...

Single oral doses of aluminium hydroxide (50 to 200 mg/kg) were found to induce in mice a dose-dependent diminution of the power of the 7.5 to 12 Hz frequency band, with a parallel dose-dependent increase of aluminium content in the brain, as early as 45 min after administration, and indicated that aluminium hydroxide is readily absorbed through an empty stomach or duodenum and is able to induc...

The relation between chemical composition, microstructure and oxidation properties has been investigated on various FeAl based alloys, the aim being to induce changes in the microstructure of the compound by selective oxidation of aluminium. Oxidation kinetics that was evaluated on bulk specimens showed that, due to fast diffusion in the alloys, no composition gradient is formed during the alum...

The small intestine is the largest component of the digestive tract and the major site of digestion and absorption. Aluminium compounds are used in pharmaceuticals and in water treatment processes. The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the possible effects that aluminium chloride exposure could have on the histology of the small intestine of wistar rats. The wistar rats were divided in...

The composition of the gaseous phases during pyrolytic laser-induced chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) of aluminium from triisobutylaluminium (TIBA) and trimethylamine alane (TMAA) (aluminium trihydride trimethylamine) was determined. The analysis was carried out by means of quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) in closed reaction cell. The developed arrangement for sampling allowed in situ analyse...

Electrolyte is a key material for success in the research and development of next-generation rechargeable batteries. Aluminium rechargeable batteries that use aluminium (Al) metals as anode materials are attractive candidates for next-generation batteries, though they have not been developed yet due to the lack of practically useful electrolytes. Here we present, for the first time, non-corrosi...

Bone biopsies from a group of 16 patients in chronic renal failure treated by intermittent haemodialysis were available for histoquantitative and histochemical assessment before and after the introduction of reverse osmosis treatment of the dialysis fluid. This treatment reduced the aluminium concentration of the fluid from 1.15 mg/l to less than 0.06 mg/l. After the changeover there was an inc...