by Chris Woodford . Last updated: February 4, 2022.
A lmost every material we could ever want is lurking somewhere in the planet beneath our feet. From the gold we wear as jewelry to the oil that powers our cars, Earth's storehouse of amazing materials can supply virtually every need. Chemical elements are the basic building blocks from which all the materials inside Earth are made. There are 90 or so naturally occurring elements and the majority of them are metals. But, useful though metals are, they're sometimes less than perfect for the jobs we need them to do. Take iron, for example. It's amazingly strong, but it can be quite brittle and it also rusts easily in damp air. Or what about aluminum. It's very light but, in its pure form, it's too soft and weak to be of much use. That's why most of the "metals" we use are not actually metals at all but alloys : metals combined with other substances to make them stronger, harder, lighter, or better in some other way. Alloys are everywhere around us—from the fillings in our teeth and the alloy wheels on our cars to the space satellites whizzing over our heads. Let's take a closer look at what they are and why they're so useful!
Photo: High-strength superalloys like this one, made from "intermetallic" titanium aluminide (TiAl), are used in extreme applications (like aerospace engines) where "ordinary" aluminum and steel alloys are unsuitable. Photo by courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center.
Photo: This sample of a titanium-zirconium-nickel alloy is being made to levitate (float in mid air) using electricity. It's one of many remarkable new materials being developed for possible use in space. Photo by courtesy of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA-MSFC).
You might see the word alloy described as a "mixture of metals", but that's a little bit misleading because some alloys contain only one metal and it's mixed in with other substances that are nonmetals (cast iron, for example, is an alloy made of just one metal, iron, mixed with one nonmetal, carbon).
The best way to think of an alloy is as a material that's made up of at least two different chemical elements, one of which is a metal. The most important metallic component of an alloy (often representing 90 percent or more of the material) is called the main metal , the parent metal , or the base metal . The other components of an alloy (which are called alloying agents ) can be either metals or nonmetals and they're present in much smaller quantities (sometimes less than 1 percent of the total). Although an alloy can sometimes be a compound (the elements it's made from are chemically bonded together), it's usually a solid solution (atoms of the elements are simply intermixed, like salt mixed with water).
Sponsored linksIf you look at a metal through a powerful electron microscope, you can see the atoms inside arranged in a regular structure called a crystalline lattice . Imagine a small cardboard box full of marbles and that's pretty much what you'd see. In an alloy, apart from the atoms of the main metal, there are also atoms of the alloying agents dotted throughout the structure. (Imagine dropping a few plastic balls into the cardboard box so they arrange themselves randomly among the marbles.)
Artwork: Substitution alloys and interstitial alloys: In these diagrams, the black circles represent the main metal and the red circles are the alloying agents.
If the atoms of the alloying agent replace atoms of the main metal, we get what's called a substitution alloy . An alloy like this will form only if the atoms of the base metal and those of the alloying agent are of roughly similar size. In most substitution alloys, the constituent elements are quite near one another in the periodic table. Brass, for example, is a substitution alloy based on copper in which atoms of zinc replace 10–35 percent of the atoms that would normally be in copper. Brass works as an alloy because copper and zinc are close to one another in the periodic table and have atoms of roughly similar size.
Photo: It's not just the basic ingredients (the metals and other constituents) that affect the properties of an alloy; how those ingredients combine is very important too. Pouring or stirring speeds, pouring temperatures, and cooling rates are some of the factors that can affect the physical properties of alloys. Photo of brass alloy casting by Jet Lowe, courtesy of US Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Historic American Engineering Record.
People make and use alloys because metals don't have exactly the right properties for a particular job. Iron is a great building material but steel (an alloy made by adding small amounts of nonmetallic carbon to iron) is stronger, harder, and rustproof. Aluminum is a very light metal but it's also very soft in its pure form. Add small amounts of the metals magnesium, manganese, and copper and you make a superb aluminum alloy called duralumin, which is strong enough to make airplanes. Alloys always show improvements over the main metal in one or more of their important physical properties (things like strength, durability, ability to conduct electricity, ability to withstand heat, and so on). Generally, alloys are stronger and harder than their main metals, less malleable (harder to work) and less ductile (harder to pull into wires).
Chart: The same main metal can produce very different alloys when it's mixed with other elements. Here are four examples of copper alloys. Although copper is the main metal in all of them, each one has quite different properties.
Photo: Scientists at NASA Ames have developed a technique called high-pressure gas atomization for simplifying the production of magnesium alloys. Photo by courtesy of US Department of Energy.
There are zillions of different alloys used for zillions of different purposes. We've listed about 25 of the more common (or otherwise interesting) ones in the table below. There are lots of different variations on most alloys and the precise mixture can vary widely, so the percentage figures you see quoted in different books will often not agree exactly.
Iron (50%+), aluminum (8–12%), nickel (15–25%), cobalt (5–40%), plus other metals such as copper and titanium.
Mercury (45–55%), plus silver, tin, copper, and zinc.
Babbitt metal ("white metal")
Tin (90%), antimony (7–15%), copper (4–10%).
Friction-reducing coating in machine bearings.
Copper (65–90%), zinc (10–35%).
Door locks and bolts, brass musical instruments, central heating pipes.
Copper (78–95%), tin (5–22%), plus manganese, phosphorus, aluminum, or silicon.
Decorative statues, musical instruments.
Iron (96–98%), carbon (2–4%), plus silicon.
Metal structures such as bridges and heavy-duty cookware.
Copper (55%), nickel (45%).
Cupro-nickel (copper nickel)
Varying proportions of copper and nickel. The most common variety uses 90% copper and 10% nickel, but other varieties include 70% copper and 30% nickel. Other varieties use small amounts of aluminum, chromium, tin, or manganese.
Aluminum (94%), copper (4.5–5%), magnesium (0.5–1.5%), manganese (0.5–1.5%).
Automobile and aircraft body parts, military equipment.
Copper (80–90%), tin (3–10%), zinc (2–3%), and phosphorus.
Guns, decorative items.
Iron (64%), nickel (36%), which explains its alternative names: FeNi36 and 64FeNi.
Pendulum clocks and scientific instruments that need to resist heat expansion. The unusual name is shortened from the word "invariability" (because the size of an invar block changes very little when it's heated).
Fuel-rod containers in nuclear reactors.
Nickel (66%), copper (31.5), plus smaller amounts of carbon, silicon, manganese, and iron.
Highly corrosion-resistant alloy used in airplane bodies and shipping components.
Nickel (80%), chromium (20%).
Firework ignition devices, heating elements in electrical appliances.
Nickel (50–55%), titanium (45–50%).
Shape-memory alloy used in medical items, spectacle frames that spring back to shape, and temperature switches.
Tin (80–99%) with copper, lead, and antimony.
Ornaments, used to make tableware before glass became more common.
Varies. Old-fashioned solders contain a mixture of tin (50-70%), lead (30-50%), copper, antimony, and other metals. Newer solders dispense with lead for safety reasons. A typical modern solder has 99.25 percent tin and 0.75 percent copper.
Connecting electrical components into circuits.
Iron (80–98%), carbon (0.2–2%), plus other metals such as chromium, manganese, and vanadium.
Metal structures, car and airplane parts, and many other uses.
Iron (50%+), chromium (10–30%), plus smaller amounts of carbon, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, and other metals.
Jewelry, medical tools, tableware.
Cobalt (67%), chromium (28%), tungsten (4%), nickel (1%).
Coating for cutting tools such as saw teeth, lathes, and chainsaws.
Silver (92.5%), copper (7.5%).
Cutlery, jewelry, medical tools, musical instruments.
Typically (but not always) nickel-based: nickel (45–70%), chromium (14–30%), plus smaller amounts of various other metals (common ones such as iron, molybdenum, and copper, or more unusual ones like rhenium, hafnium, and ruthenium) and nonmetals (for example, silicon, carbon, or phosphorus).
Protective, high-temperature materials widely used in aerospace engine applications where aluminum and steel are unsuitable. Examples include the Inconel® family, Waspaloy®, Hastelloy® alloys, and the CMSX alloys (such as CMSX-4®).
White gold (18 carat)
Gold (75%), palladium (17%), silver (4%), copper (4%)
Bismuth (50%), lead (26.7%), tin (13.3%), cadmium (10%).
Solder, melting element in fire sprinkler systems.
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Photo: This fuel tank from the Space Shuttle was made from a super-light aluminum-lithium alloy, so it's a whopping 3400 kg (7500 lb) lighter than the tank it replaced. Cutting weight from the basic structure of the Shuttle meant it could carry heavier payloads (cargo). Photo by courtesy of NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA-KSC).
These books explain the basic concept of matching materials to the jobs they need to do. That's the essential idea behind most alloys—essentially metals "enhanced" to do specific jobs better than they would in their pure, natural state.
It's quite hard to find simple, general books about alloys; search instead for books on "engineering materials" and you should find something appropriate.
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Text copyright © Chris Woodford 2008, 2020. All rights reserved. Full copyright notice and terms of use.
Inconel is a registered trademark of Huntington Alloys Corporation
Monel is a registered trademark of International Nickel Co.
Waspaloy is a registered trademark of United Technologies Corporation
Hastelloy is a registered trademark of Haynes International, Inc.
Names of specific CMSX alloys (such as CMSX-4) are registered trademarks of Cannon-Muskegon Corporation.
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