eli5 – how does the process of purifying metals goes?
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It’s different for every metal, and again different depending on which impurity you want to remove. Smelting iron ore (= iron oxide) into iron metal is for example done by adding coal, and letting the coal react with the oxide to produce carbon dioxide and metallic iron. Aluminum is vastly different, since aluminum oxide is way harder to break apart it has to be done by electrolysis. Titanium is even more complex, requiring multiple steps to arrive at the metal (that’s the main reason titanium metal is expensive; the titanium ore is dirt cheap).
Purifying metals that are already mostly metal, but contaminated with other stuff can e.g. be done by using an acid that dissolves the metal, but not the impurities, or vice versa. Or my favorite “wacky method”, react the metal into some compound that’s a liquid (e.g. nickel carbonyl or silicon tetrachloride), then distilling the liquid, then reacting the compound back into pure metal.
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