Aluminium monochloride, or chloridoaluminium is the

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

halide with the formula AlCl. Aluminum monochloride as a molecule is thermodynamically stable at high temperature and low pressure only. This compound is produced as a step in the

Alcan Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During t ...

process to smelt

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

from an aluminium-rich

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...

. When the alloy is placed in a reactor that is heated to 1,300 °C and mixed with

aluminium trichloride Aluminium chloride, also known as aluminium trichloride, is an inorganic compound with the formula . It forms hexahydrate with the formula , containing six water molecules of hydration. Both are colourless crystals, but samples are often conta ...

, a gas of aluminium monochloride is produced. : It then disproportionates into aluminium melt and aluminium trichloride upon cooling to 900 °C. This molecule has been detected in the interstellar medium, where molecules are so dilute that intermolecular collisions are unimportant.

References

Aluminium(I) compounds Chlorides Metal halides {{inorganic-compound-stub

See also

References