High-Purity Aluminium (99.99%) and Its Expansive Use in Multiple Industries

Pure aluminium is not a new material concept, but its use has been growing in many industries, particularly with the rise of sustainability and environmental concerns. This has led industries to consider materials that not only are recyclable but also can be produced with a low environmental footprint. High-purity aluminium with at least 99.99% Al is a material that has been sought after for specific applications in the aeronautics, chemical, battery, semiconductor, and manufacturing industries, to name a few. In this article, we will discuss how high-purity aluminium is sustainably produced and what application areas utilise it as an essential material.

Sustainable production of high-purity aluminium

Pure aluminium with 99.99+% Al content is produced via a process known as melt crystallisation. Also referred to as fractional crystallisation, this segregation process purifies the material by separating its elements based on their solubility and crystallisation differences. This crystallisation takes place by subjecting the melt to cooling, evaporation, or pressure.

Nature Alu, a new high-purity aluminium supplier from Canada, has been potently keen on producing this material in the most sustainable way possible. In fact, Nature Alu’s high-purity Al has the lowest environmental footprint in the industry, thanks to their low-energy-consuming fractional crystallisation process and their use of hydroelectricity to support the entire supply chain, which minimises CO₂ emissions.

They collect solid aluminium (P0404) from aluminium smelters and then refine it up to 10 times its original purity using fractional crystallisation. In the initial purification phase, a fraction of the existing impurities is removed by introducing an additive that allows them to settle during melting. Afterwards, and thanks to aluminium’s solidifying properties, the other impurities are separated. The whole process is automated and monitored, and the solidification parameters are controlled in a computerised manner.

Nature Alu provides high-purity aluminium ingots with various grades of purity, including P0101, 3N+ and 4N+ grades.

High-purity aluminium for various industries

Despite the widespread use of aluminium in numerous application areas as a result of its advantageous alloying properties, many industries in recent years have started to require the production of high-purity aluminium for particular applications. These industries range from the aeronautical industry to the chemical industry, semiconductors and electronics, batteries, electrical components, manufacturing and 3D printing.

Capacitor foil

Capacitor foil is a form of capacitors that comes in various thickness and design considerations. Aluminium is, generally, the most used material for such a capacitor electrode. In particular, high-purity aluminium capacitor foils have to have well-defined thickness and surface/edge treatment to ensure a precise capacitor design. Based on the precision of processing, the impurities in the material, the foil’s uniformity, continuity, and freedom of sticking could be well controlled. Suppliers, such as Nature Alu, provide high-purity aluminium ingots and sows that can be used for capacitor foils in different dimensions, thicknesses, and purity levels.

Battery component

Pure aluminium is also used in batteries, such as aluminium-air batteries, which are batteries with the highest energy densities, and the more common lithium-ion batteries in the forms of aluminium foils. Aluminium foils are used in the cathode of a battery cell as a current collector.

3D printing

Additive manufacturing techniques, such as selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beam melting (EBM), can make use of high-purity aluminium powder, especially in fabricating aerospace and automotive parts. Its smooth surface, high powder sphericity, and low oxygen content, besides other valuable characteristics, allow for its use in different processes of 3D-printing.

Sapphire production

Synthetic sapphire is one of the main materials used in the fabrication of LED substrates, semiconductor wafers, optical windows, and smartphone parts. High-purity aluminium, in the form of high-purity alumina (HPA), is a highly crucial material in the production of synthetic sapphire.

Sputtering target

Sputtering targets are materials used in deposition processes, known as sputter deposition or more commonly thin film deposition, to create thin films on top of a particular substrate. During the process, gas ions hitting the solid target cause tiny particles from its surface to break up and fall onto the substrate material, where they deposit and create a thin film coating. High-purity aluminium is one of the many impressive materials used as a sputtering target for substrates used in thin-film transistors for the display industry. Since impurities can impair the material’s conductivity, aluminium with a purity of at least 99.99% can be an effective target material.

The rise of Nature Alu

Nature Alu is a new high-purity aluminium producer that was founded in 2016 in Quebec, Canada. Its founders are metallurgical engineers with 30+ years of experience in the aluminium industry, and they have dedicated themselves fully to the production of high-purity aluminium in its various grades (P0101 up to 4N+). Today, Nature Alu is the only producer of high-purity aluminium in North America, and it produces the greenest high-purity aluminium in the industry. It provides a new option to simplify the aluminium supply to its customers in America, Europe, and Japan. Its team of industry experts have comprehensive experience in the aluminium processing industry. They also produce customisable aluminium adapted to the needs of their clients. Their products are sold in 10 kg ingots, 550/750 kg pigs, or other amounts based on customer requirements.

Nature Alu has joined Matmatch and listed its high-purity aluminium materials to reach more engineers and product developers and help them in their material selection by providing them with sustainable options and extensive expertise.

Visit the Nature Alu supplier profile for more information on their materials and to get in direct contact with them.