Skip to the content
Browse the library

Aluminium (Al)

Aluminium is the 13th element, a post-transition metal in the p-block. Its standard atomic weight is 26.982.

Period 3Group 13p-blockPost-transition metal
13Al

Aluminium

26.982

What the table records

Atomic number
13
Standard atomic weight
26.982
Group
13
Period
3
Block
p-block
Category
Post-transition metal
Electron configuration
[Ne] 3s2 3p1
Valence electrons
3
Typical valence
3
Van der Waals radius
2.1 Å
Covalent radius
1.21 Å

The configuration above is the aufbau order.

How to read these numbers

The standard atomic weight is an average over the isotopes as they occur naturally, which is why it is rarely a whole number. It is the figure a molar mass calculation uses. Work in mass spectrometry wants the monoisotopic mass of a single isotope instead, which is a different number.

The two radii are not the same measurement. The covalent radius is half the distance between two bonded atoms of the element; the van der Waals radius is how close a non-bonded atom gets before repulsion takes over, and is always the larger. Space-filling models are drawn with the second, ball-and-stick models with the first — which is why the same molecule looks so different in the two.