Deville process
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The Deville process was an industrial method developed by French scientist Henri Sainte-Claire Deville to produce aluminum. This process was a significant improvement on earlier methods, allowing for the creation of larger aluminum pieces than previously possible. While it introduced aluminum to the public and laid the foundation for the aluminum industry, the high cost of production limited its widespread use. Further improvements to the Deville process, along with the development of the dynamo for electrolysis, eventually made aluminum more accessible.1
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metallurgyLight metalsThe process was very expensive, but cost was greatly reduced when the American chemist Hamilton Young Castner developed an electrolytic cell for producing cheaper sodium in 1886. At the same time, however, Charles M. Hall in the United States and Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult in France announced their…
Read MoreThe process was very expensive, but cost was greatly reduced when the American chemist Hamilton Young Castner developed an electrolytic cell for producing cheaper sodium in 1886. At the same time, however, Charles M. Hall in the United States and Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult in France announced their…
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aluminum processingDeville processAluminum remained a laboratory curiosity until a French scientist, Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, announced a major improvement in Wöhler’s method, which permitted Wöhler’s “pinheads” to coalesce into lumps the size of marbles. Deville’s process became the foundation of the aluminum industry. Bars of aluminum,…
Read MoreAluminum remained a laboratory curiosity until a French scientist, Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, announced a major improvement in Wöhler’s method, which permitted Wöhler’s “pinheads” to coalesce into lumps the size of marbles. Deville’s process became the foundation of the aluminum industry. Bars of aluminum,…
Read More- aluminum processingSmelting
The Deville process, which involves direct reaction of metallic sodium with aluminum chloride, was the basis of aluminum production in the late 19th century, but it has been abandoned in favour of the more economical electrolytic process. A carbothermic approach, the classical method for reducing (removing…
Read MoreThe Deville process, which involves direct reaction of metallic sodium with aluminum chloride, was the basis of aluminum production in the late 19th century, but it has been abandoned in favour of the more economical electrolytic process. A carbothermic approach, the classical method for reducing (removing…
Read More