Alum

This article is about the class of double sulfates of aluminium. For the specific representative compound, see potassium alum. For the chromium analogs, see chrome alum. For papermakers' alum, see aluminium sulfate. For a graduate or former student of an educational institution, see alumni. For other uses, see Alum (disambiguation).
Crystal of potassium alum, KAl(SO
4)
2·12H
2O

An alum (/ˈæləm/) is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double sulfate salt of aluminium with the general formula XAl(SO
4)
2·12 H
2O, such that X is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium.[1] By itself, "alum" often refers to potassium alum, with the formula KAl(SO
4)
2·12 H
2O. Other alums are named after the monovalent ion, such as sodium alum and ammonium alum.

The name "alum" is also used, more generally, for salts with the same formula and structure, except that aluminium is replaced by another trivalent metal ion like chromiumIII, and/or sulfur is replaced by another chalcogen like selenium.[1] The most common of these analogs is chrome alum KCr(SO
4)
2·12 H
2O.

In most industries, the name "alum" (or "papermaker's alum") is used to refer to aluminium sulfate, Al
2 (SO
4)
3·n H
2O, which is used for most industrial flocculation[1]: 766  (the variable n is an integer whose size depends on the amount of water absorbed into the alum). For medicine, the word "alum" may also refer to aluminium hydroxide gel used as a vaccine adjuvant.[2]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Austin-1984-Shreves was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference InvivoGen-Alum-adjvt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).