Nickel

This article is about the chemical element. For other uses, see Nickel (disambiguation).

Nickel, 28Ni
A pitted and lumpy piece of nickel, with the top surface cut flat
Nickel
AppearanceLustrous, metallic, and silver with a gold tinge
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Ni)
Nickel in the periodic table
Hydrogen Helium
Lithium Beryllium Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Fluorine Neon
Sodium Magnesium Aluminium Silicon Phosphorus Sulfur Chlorine Argon
Potassium Calcium Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chromium Manganese Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Zinc Gallium Germanium Arsenic Selenium Bromine Krypton
Rubidium Strontium Yttrium Zirconium Niobium Molybdenum Technetium Ruthenium Rhodium Palladium Silver Cadmium Indium Tin Antimony Tellurium Iodine Xenon
Caesium Barium Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium Hafnium Tantalum Tungsten Rhenium Osmium Iridium Platinum Gold Mercury (element) Thallium Lead Bismuth Polonium Astatine Radon
Francium Radium Actinium Thorium Protactinium Uranium Neptunium Plutonium Americium Curium Berkelium Californium Einsteinium Fermium Mendelevium Nobelium Lawrencium Rutherfordium Dubnium Seaborgium Bohrium Hassium Meitnerium Darmstadtium Roentgenium Copernicium Nihonium Flerovium Moscovium Livermorium Tennessine Oganesson
–
↑
Ni
↓
Pd
cobalt ← nickel → copper
Atomic number (Z)28
Groupgroup 10
Periodperiod 4
Block  d-block
Electron configuration[Ar] 3d8 4s2 or [Ar] 3d9 4s1
Electrons per shell2, 8, 16, 2 or 2, 8, 17, 1
Physical properties
Phase at STPsolid
Melting point1728 K ​(1455 °C, ​2651 °F)
Boiling point3003 K ​(2730 °C, ​4946 °F)
Density (at 20° C)8.907 g/cm3 [3]
when liquid (at m.p.)7.81 g/cm3
Heat of fusion17.48 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization379 kJ/mol
Molar heat capacity26.07 J/(mol·K)
Vapor pressure
P (Pa) 1 10 100 1 k 10 k 100 k
at T (K) 1783 1950 2154 2410 2741 3184
Atomic properties
Oxidation statescommon: +2
−2,[4] −1,[5] 0,[6] +1,[7] +3,[5] +4[8]
ElectronegativityPauling scale: 1.91
Ionization energies
  • 1st: 737.1 kJ/mol
  • 2nd: 1753.0 kJ/mol
  • 3rd: 3395 kJ/mol
  • (more)
Atomic radiusempirical: 124 pm
Covalent radius124±4 pm
Van der Waals radius163 pm
Color lines in a spectral range
Spectral lines of nickel
Other properties
Natural occurrenceprimordial
Crystal structure ​face-centered cubic (fcc) (cF4)
Lattice constant
Face-centered cubic crystal structure for nickel
a = 352.41 pm (at 20 °C)[3]
Thermal expansion12.83×10−6/K (at 20 °C)[3]
Thermal conductivity90.9 W/(m⋅K)
Electrical resistivity69.3 nΩ⋅m (at 20 °C)
Magnetic orderingferromagnetic
Young's modulus200 GPa
Shear modulus76 GPa
Bulk modulus180 GPa
Speed of sound thin rod4900 m/s (at r.t.)
Poisson ratio0.31
Mohs hardness4.0
Vickers hardness638 MPa
Brinell hardness667–1600 MPa
CAS Number7440-02-0
History
Discovery and first isolationAxel Fredrik Cronstedt (1751)
Isotopes of nickel
Main isotopes[9] Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
58Ni 68.1% stable
59Ni trace 7.6×104 y ε 59Co
60Ni 26.2% stable
61Ni 1.14% stable
62Ni 3.63% stable
63Ni synth 100 y β− 63Cu
64Ni 0.926% stable
 Category: Nickel
| references

Nickel is a chemical element; it has 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. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slow to react with air under standard conditions because a passivation layer of nickel oxide forms on the surface that prevents further corrosion. Even so, pure native nickel is found in Earth's crust only in tiny amounts, usually in ultramafic rocks,[10][11] and in the interiors of larger nickel–iron meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when outside Earth's atmosphere.

Meteoric nickel is found in combination with iron, a reflection of the origin of those elements as major end products of supernova nucleosynthesis. An iron–nickel mixture is thought to compose Earth's outer and inner cores.[12]

Use of nickel (as natural meteoric nickel–iron alloy) has been traced as far back as 3500 BCE. Nickel was first isolated and classified as an element in 1751 by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who initially mistook the ore for a copper mineral, in the cobalt mines of Los, Hälsingland, Sweden. The element's name comes from a mischievous sprite of German miner mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick). Nickel minerals can be green, like copper ores, and were known as kupfernickel – Nickel's copper – because they produced no copper.

Although most nickel in the earth's crust exists as oxides, economically more important nickel ores are sulfides, especially pentlandite. Major production sites include the Sudbury region, Canada (which is thought to be of meteoric origin), New Caledonia in the Pacific, Western Australia, and Norilsk, Russia.[13]

Nickel is one of four elements (the others are iron, cobalt, and gadolinium)[14] that are ferromagnetic at about room temperature. Alnico permanent magnets based partly on nickel are of intermediate strength between iron-based permanent magnets and rare-earth magnets. The metal is used chiefly in alloys and corrosion-resistant plating.

About 68% of world production is used in stainless steel. A further 10% is used for nickel-based and copper-based alloys, 9% for plating, 7% for alloy steels, 3% in foundries, and 4% in other applications such as in rechargeable batteries,[15] including those in electric vehicles (EVs).[16] Nickel is widely used in coins, though nickel-plated objects sometimes provoke nickel allergy. As a compound, nickel has a number of niche chemical manufacturing uses, such as a catalyst for hydrogenation, cathodes for rechargeable batteries, pigments and metal surface treatments.[17] Nickel is an essential nutrient for some microorganisms and plants that have enzymes with nickel as an active site.[18]

  1. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Nickel". CIAAW. 2007.
  2. ^ Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (May 4, 2022). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.
  3. ^ a b c Arblaster, John W. (2018). Selected Values of the Crystallographic Properties of Elements. Materials Park, Ohio: ASM International. ISBN 978-1-62708-155-9.
  4. ^ Ni(–2) is known in Ni(COD)2−2; see John E. Ellis (2006). "Adventures with Substances Containing Metals in Negative Oxidation States". Inorganic Chemistry. 45 (8). doi:10.1021/ic052110i.
  5. ^ a b Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-08-037941-8.
  6. ^ Ni(0) is known in Ni(CO)4; see John E. Ellis (2006). "Adventures with Substances Containing Metals in Negative Oxidation States". Inorganic Chemistry. 45 (8). doi:10.1021/ic052110i.
  7. ^ Pfirrmann, Stefan; Limberg, Christian; Herwig, Christian; Stößer, Reinhard; Ziemer, Burkhard (2009). "A Dinuclear Nickel(I) Dinitrogen Complex and its Reduction in Single-Electron Steps". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 48 (18): 3357–61. doi:10.1002/anie.200805862. PMID 19322853.
  8. ^ Carnes, Matthew; Buccella, Daniela; Chen, Judy Y.-C.; Ramirez, Arthur P.; Turro, Nicholas J.; Nuckolls, Colin; Steigerwald, Michael (2009). "A Stable Tetraalkyl Complex of Nickel(IV)". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 48 (2): 290–4. doi:10.1002/anie.200804435. PMID 19021174.
  9. ^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
  10. ^ Anthony, John W.; Bideaux, Richard A.; Bladh, Kenneth W.; Nichols, Monte C., eds. (1990). "Nickel" (PDF). Handbook of Mineralogy. Vol. I. Chantilly, Virginia, US: Mineralogical Society of America. ISBN 978-0962209703.
  11. ^ "Nickel: Nickel mineral information and data". Mindat.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  12. ^ Stixrude, Lars; Waserman, Evgeny; Cohen, Ronald (November 1997). "Composition and temperature of Earth's inner core". Journal of Geophysical Research. 102 (B11): 24729–24740. Bibcode:1997JGR...10224729S. doi:10.1029/97JB02125.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference ullmann-1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Coey, J. M. D.; Skumryev, V.; Gallagher, K. (1999). "Rare-earth metals: Is gadolinium really ferromagnetic?". Nature. 401 (6748): 35–36. Bibcode:1999Natur.401...35C. doi:10.1038/43363. S2CID 4383791.
  15. ^ "Nickel in Batteries". Nickel Institute. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017.
  16. ^ Treadgold, Tim. "Gold Is Hot But Nickel Is Hotter As Demand Grows For Batteries In Electric Vehicles". Forbes. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  17. ^ "Nickel Compounds" (PDF). Nickel Institute. Archived from the original on August 31, 2018.
  18. ^ Mulrooney, Scott B.; Hausinger, Robert P. (June 1, 2003). "Nickel uptake and utilization by microorganisms". FEMS Microbiology Reviews. 27 (2–3): 239–261. doi:10.1016/S0168-6445(03)00042-1. ISSN 0168-6445. PMID 12829270.