Nickel

Introduction and Occurrence

• Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28.
• It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge.
• Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal.
• It forms a passivation layer of nickel oxide to prevent corrosion.
• Nickel is commonly found in combination with sulfur and iron in minerals like pentlandite and millerite.
• It is also found with arsenic in minerals like nickeline and nickel galena.
• Nickel is present in iron meteorites as kamacite and taenite alloys.

Production and Uses

• 68% of world production of nickel is used in stainless steel.
• 10% is used for nickel-based and copper-based alloys.
• 9% is used for plating.
• 7% is used for alloy steels.
• 4% is used in other applications such as rechargeable batteries.

Properties

• Nickel is a silvery-white metal with a slight golden tinge.
• It is ferromagnetic at or near room temperature.
• It has a high compressive strength of 34 GPa.
• Nickel has a face-centered cubic crystal structure.
• It has relatively high electrical and thermal conductivity.

Atomic and Physical Properties

• Nickel has a Curie temperature of 355°C (671°F).
• It has a lattice parameter of 0.352nm.
• Nickel is hard, malleable, and ductile.
• It has high electrical and thermal conductivity.
• The crystal structure of nickel is stable under high pressures.

Isotopes and Compounds

• Nickel has isotopes ranging in atomic weight from 48u to 82u.
• It has five stable isotopes, with Ni-58 being the most abundant.
• Nickel-62 has the highest binding energy per nucleon.
• There are at least 26 characterized nickel radioisotopes.
• The most common oxidation state of nickel is +2, but it can also have oxidation states of +3, +4, and exotic states like +1 and +5.
• Nickel compounds include nickel tetracarbonyl, bis(cyclooctadiene)nickel(0), and various tetracoordinate nickel(II) complexes.
• Nickel tetracarbonyl is a volatile and highly toxic liquid used in the Mond process for purifying nickel.
• Nickel(III) compounds can form simple salts and can be stabilized by σ-donor ligands.
• Nickel(IV) compounds are rare, with the mixed oxide BaNiO containing Ni(IV).

History

• Nickel was unintentionally used as early as 3500 BCE.
• Ancient Chinese manuscripts suggest the use of cupronickel around 1700-1400 BCE.
• Coins made of nickel-copper alloy were minted in the 2nd century BCE.
• The mineral nickeline was mistaken for copper ore in medieval Germany.
• Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt extracted a white metal from kupfernickel and named it nickel.

Nickel Data Sources