Product Code Database
Nickel is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and Ductility 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 that prevents further corrosion forms on the surface. Even so, pure native metal nickel is found in Earth's crust only in tiny amounts, usually in , (1990). 9780962209703, Mineralogical Society of America. ISBN 9780962209703 and in the interiors of larger iron meteorite that were not exposed to oxygen when outside Earth's atmosphere.
Meteoric iron 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.
Use of nickel (as natural meteoric iron 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 Sulawesi, Indonesia, the Sudbury Basin, Canada (which is thought to be of Meteorite origin), New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean, Western Australia, and Norilsk, Russia.
Nickel is one of four elements (the others are iron, cobalt, and gadolinium) 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 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, including those in (EVs). 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 Raney nickel, for rechargeable batteries, pigments and metal surface treatments. Nickel is an essential nutrient for some microorganisms and plants that have enzymes with nickel as an active site.
However, each of these two configurations splits into several energy levels due to fine structure, and the two sets of energy levels overlap. The average energy of states with Ar 3d 4s is actually lower than the average energy of states with Ar 3d 4s. Therefore, the research literature on atomic calculations quotes the ground state configuration as Ar 3d 4s.
Natural nickel is composed of five stable , , , , and , of which is the most abundant (68.077% natural abundance).
Nickel-62 has the highest binding energy per nucleon of any nuclide: 8.7946 MeV/nucleon. Its binding energy is greater than both and , more abundant nuclides often incorrectly cited as having the highest binding energy. Though this would seem to predict nickel as the most abundant heavy element in the universe, the high rate of photodisintegration of nickel in stellar interiors causes iron to be by far the most abundant.
Nickel-60 is the daughter product of the extinct radionuclide (half-life 2.6 million years). Due to the long half-life of , its persistence in materials in the Solar System may generate observable variations in the isotopic composition of . Therefore, the abundance of in extraterrestrial material may give insight into the origin of the Solar System and its early history.
At least 26 nickel have been characterized; the most stable are with half-life 76,000 years, (100 years), and (6 days). All other radioisotopes have half-lives less than 60 hours and most these have half-lives less than 30 seconds. This element also has one meta state.
Radioactive nickel-56 is produced by the silicon burning process and later set free in large amounts in type Ia . The shape of the light curve of these supernovae at intermediate to late-times corresponds to the decay via electron capture of to cobalt-56 and ultimately to iron-56. Nickel-59 is a long-lived cosmogenic radionuclide; half-life 76,000 years. has found many applications in isotope geology. has been used to date the terrestrial age of and to determine abundances of extraterrestrial dust in ice and sediment. Nickel-78, with a half-life of 110 milliseconds, is believed an important isotope in supernova nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than iron. Ni, discovered in 1999, is the most proton-rich heavy element isotope known. With 28 and 20 , Ni is "doubly magic", as is Ni with 28 protons and 50 neutrons. Both are therefore unusually stable for nuclei with so large a proton–neutron imbalance.
Nickel-63 is a contaminant found in the support structure of nuclear reactors. It is produced through neutron capture by nickel-62. Small amounts have also been found near nuclear weapon test sites in the South Pacific.
Identified land-based resources throughout the world averaging 1% nickel or greater comprise at least 130 million tons of nickel (about the double of known reserves). About 60% is in laterites and 40% in sulfide deposits.
On geophysics evidence, most of the nickel on Earth is believed to be in Earth's outer core and . Kamacite and taenite are naturally occurring of iron and nickel. For kamacite, the alloy is usually in the proportion of 90:10 to 95:5, though impurities (such as cobalt or carbon) may be present. Taenite is 20% to 65% nickel. Kamacite and taenite are also found in nickel iron meteorites.
Nickel is commonly found in as the alloys kamacite and taenite. Nickel in meteorites was first detected in 1799 by Joseph Proust, a French chemist who then worked in Spain. Proust analyzed samples of the meteorite from Campo del Cielo (Argentina), which had been obtained in 1783 by Miguel Rubín de Celis, discovering the presence in them of nickel (about 10%) along with iron.
It is thought that the nickel(I) oxidation state is important to nickel-containing enzymes, such as [NiFe-hydrogenase]], which catalyzes the reversible reduction of protons to .
The four halides form nickel compounds, which are solids with molecules with octahedral Ni centres. Nickel(II) chloride is most common, and its behavior is illustrative of the other halides. Nickel(II) chloride is made by dissolving nickel or its oxide in hydrochloric acid. It is usually found as the green hexahydrate, whose formula is usually written . When dissolved in water, this salt forms the metal aquo complex . Dehydration of gives yellow anhydrous .
Some tetracoordinate nickel(II) complexes, e.g. bis(triphenylphosphine)nickel chloride, exist both in tetrahedral and square planar geometries. The tetrahedral complexes are paramagnetic; the square planar complexes are diamagnetic. In having properties of magnetic equilibrium and formation of octahedral complexes, they contrast with the divalent complexes of the heavier group 10 metals, palladium(II) and platinum(II), which form only square-planar geometry.
Nickelocene has an electron count of 20. Many chemical reactions of nickelocene tend to yield 18-electron products. (1999). 9780138418915, Prentice-Hall. ISBN 9780138418915
Ni(III) occurs in nickel oxide hydroxide, which is used as the cathode in many rechargeable batteries, including nickel–cadmium, nickel–iron, nickel–hydrogen, and nickel–metal hydride, and used by certain manufacturers in Li-ion batteries.
Ni(IV) remains a rare oxidation state and very few compounds are known. Ni(IV) occurs in the mixed oxide .
Originally, the only source for nickel was the rare Kupfernickel. Beginning in 1824, nickel was obtained as a byproduct of cobalt blue production. The first large-scale smelting of nickel began in Norway in 1848 from nickel-rich pyrrhotite. The introduction of nickel in steel production in 1889 increased the demand for nickel; the nickel deposits of New Caledonia, discovered in 1865, provided most of the world's supply between 1875 and 1915. The discovery of the large deposits in the Sudbury Basin in Canada in 1883, in Norilsk-Talnakh in Russia in 1920, and in the Merensky Reef in South Africa in 1924 made large-scale nickel production possible.
The US nickel coin contains of nickel, which at the April 2007 price was worth 6.5 cents, along with 3.75 grams of copper worth about 3 cents, with a total metal value of more than 9 cents. Since the face value of a nickel is 5 cents, this made it an attractive target for melting by people wanting to sell the metals at a profit. The United States Mint, anticipating this practice, implemented new interim rules on December 14, 2006, subject to public comment for 30 days, which criminalized the melting and export of cents and nickels. United States Mint Moves to Limit Exportation & Melting of Coins , The United States Mint, press release, December 14, 2006 Violators can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000 and/or a maximum of five years in prison. As of February 19, 2025, the melt value of a US nickel (copper and nickel included) is $0.054 (108% of the face value).
The one place in the United States where nickel has been profitably mined is Riddle, Oregon, with several square miles of nickel-bearing garnierite surface deposits. The mine closed in 1987. The Eagle mine project is a new nickel mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Construction was completed in 2013, and operations began in the third quarter of 2014. In the first full year of operation, the Eagle Mine produced 18,000 t. The Eagle mine produced 17,000 tons of nickel concentrate in 2023. Other projects in the region include the Marquette County nickel project, which received $145 million in funding from the federal government in 2024, investments in work at the Boulderdash and Roland mines, and the development of a third zone, the Keel zone, at The Eagle mine.
Traditionally, most sulfide ores are processed using pyrometallurgical techniques to produce a matte for further refining. hydrometallurgy are also used. Most sulfide deposits have traditionally been processed by concentration through a froth flotation process followed by pyrometallurgical extraction. The nickel matte is further processed with the Sherritt-Gordon process. First, copper is removed by adding hydrogen sulfide, leaving a concentrate of cobalt and nickel. Then, solvent extraction is used to separate the cobalt and nickel, with the final nickel content greater than 86%.
A second common refining process is leaching the metal matte into a nickel salt solution, followed by electrowinning the nickel from solution by plating it onto a cathode as electrolytic nickel.
Nickel is obtained from nickel carbonyl by one of two processes. It may be passed through a large chamber at high temperatures in which tens of thousands of nickel spheres (pellets) are constantly stirred. The carbonyl decomposes and deposits pure nickel onto the spheres. In the alternate process, nickel carbonyl is decomposed in a smaller chamber at 230 °C to create a fine nickel powder. The byproduct carbon monoxide is recirculated and reused. The highly pure nickel product is known as "carbonyl nickel".
Nickel is used in many recognizable industrial and consumer products, including stainless steel, alnico magnets, coinage, rechargeable batteries (e.g. nickel–iron), electric guitar strings, microphone capsules, plating on plumbing fixtures, and special alloys such as permalloy, elinvar, and invar. It is used for plating and as a green tint in glass. Nickel is preeminently an alloy metal, and its chief use is in nickel steels and nickel cast irons, in which it typically increases the tensile strength, toughness, and elastic limit. It is widely used in many other alloys, including nickel brasses and bronzes and alloys with copper, chromium, aluminium, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold (Inconel, Incoloy, Monel, Nimonic).
Nickel is traditionally used for Kris production in Southeast Asia.
Because nickel is resistant to corrosion, it was occasionally used as a substitute for decorative silver. Nickel was also occasionally used in some countries after 1859 as a cheap coinage metal (see above), but in the later years of the 20th century, it was replaced by cheaper stainless steel (i.e., iron) alloys, except in the United States and Canada.
Nickel is an excellent alloying agent for certain precious metals and is used in the fire assay as a collector of Platinum group (PGE). As such, nickel can fully collect all six PGEs from ores, and can partially collect gold. High-throughput nickel mines may also do PGE recovery (mainly platinum and palladium); examples are Norilsk, Russia and the Sudbury Basin, Canada. (2026). 9780080968094 ISBN 9780080968094
Metal foam or nickel mesh is used in gas diffusion electrodes for alkaline fuel cells.
Nickel and its alloys are often used as catalysts for hydrogenation reactions. Raney nickel, a finely divided nickel-aluminium alloy, is one common form, though related catalysts are also used, including Raney-type catalysts.
Nickel is naturally magnetostrictive: in the presence of a magnetic field, the material undergoes a small change in length. Magnetostrictive Materials Overview. University of California, Los Angeles. (2026). 9781109187533, Umi Dissertation Publishing. ISBN 9781109187533 The magnetostriction of nickel is on the order of 50 ppm and is negative, indicating that it contracts.
Nickel is used as a binder in the cemented tungsten carbide or hardmetal industry and used in proportions of 6% to 12% by weight. Nickel makes the tungsten carbide magnetic and adds corrosion-resistance to the cemented parts, though the hardness is less than those with cobalt binder.
, with a half-life of 100.1 years, is useful in krytron devices as a beta particle (high-speed electron) emitter to make ionization by the keep-alive electrode more reliable. It is being investigated as a power source for betavoltaic batteries.
Around 27% of all nickel production is used for engineering, 10% for building and construction, 14% for tubular products, 20% for metal goods, 14% for transport, 11% for electronic goods, and 5% for other uses.
In 2025, QuesTek Innovations and Stoke Space developed a nickel-based superalloy for additive manufacturing and extreme high-pressure, high-temperature oxygen environments. Its characteristics allow the material to be used for fully reusable spacecraft launch systems, it can withstand the full-flow staged combustion rocket engine Zenith.
Raney nickel is widely used for hydrogenation of unsaturated oils to make margarine, and substandard margarine and leftover oil may contain nickel as a contaminant. Forte et al. found that type 2 diabetic patients have 0.89 ng/mL of Ni in the blood relative to 0.77 ng/mL in control subjects.
Nickel titanium is an alloy of roughly equal atomic percentages of its constituent metals which exhibits two closely related and unique properties: the shape memory effect and superelasticity.
Dietary nickel may affect human health through infections by nickel-dependent bacteria, but nickel may also be an essential nutrient for bacteria living in the large intestine, in effect functioning as a prebiotic. (2026). 9789400774995, Springer. ISBN 9789400774995 The US Institute of Medicine has not confirmed that nickel is an essential nutrient for humans, so neither a Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) nor an Adequate Intake have been established. The tolerable upper intake level of dietary nickel is 1 mg/day as soluble nickel salts. Estimated dietary intake is 70 to 100 μg/day; less than 10% is absorbed. What is absorbed is excreted in urine.Nickel. IN: Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Copper . National Academy Press. 2001, PP. 521–529. Relatively large amounts of nickel – comparable to the estimated average ingestion above – leach into food cooked in stainless steel. For example, the amount of nickel leached after 10 cooking cycles into one serving of tomato sauce averages 88 μg.
Nickel released from Siberian Traps volcanic eruptions is suspected of helping the growth of Methanosarcina, a genus of euryarchaeote archaea that produced methane in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the biggest known mass extinction.
The average daily exposure is not a threat to human health. Most nickel absorbed by humans is removed by the kidneys and passed out of the body through urine or is eliminated through the gastrointestinal tract without being absorbed. Nickel is not a cumulative poison, but larger doses or chronic inhalation exposure may be toxic, even , and constitute an occupational hazard. (2026). 9781483345734, SAGE Publications, Inc.. ISBN 9781483345734
Nickel compounds are classified as human carcinogensIARC (2012). "Nickel and nickel compounds" in IARC Monogr Eval Carcinog Risks Hum. Volume 100C. pp. 169–218.Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures, Amending and Repealing Directives 67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC and amending Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 OJ. Annex VI . Accessed July 13, 2017. Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) , 5th ed., United Nations, New York and Geneva, 2013.National Toxicology Program. (2016). "Report on Carcinogens", 14th ed. Research Triangle Park, NC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. based on increased respiratory cancer risks observed in epidemiological studies of sulfidic ore refinery workers. This is supported by the positive results of the NTP bioassays with Ni sub-sulfide and Ni oxide in rats and mice. The human and animal data consistently indicate a lack of carcinogenicity via the oral route of exposure and limit the carcinogenicity of nickel compounds to respiratory tumours after inhalation. Nickel metal is classified as a suspect carcinogen; there is consistency between the absence of increased respiratory cancer risks in workers predominantly exposed to metallic nickel and the lack of respiratory tumours in a rat lifetime inhalation carcinogenicity study with nickel metal powder. In the rodent inhalation studies with various nickel compounds and nickel metal, increased lung inflammations with and without bronchial lymph node hyperplasia or fibrosis were observed. In rat studies, oral ingestion of water-soluble nickel salts can trigger perinatal mortality in pregnant animals.Springborn Laboratories Inc. (2000). "An Oral (Gavage) Two-generation Reproduction Toxicity Study in Sprague-Dawley Rats with Nickel Sulfate Hexahydrate." Final Report. Springborn Laboratories Inc., Spencerville. SLI Study No. 3472.4. Whether these effects are relevant to humans is unclear as epidemiological studies of highly exposed female workers have not shown adverse developmental toxicity effects.
People can be exposed to nickel in the workplace by inhalation, ingestion, and contact with skin or eye. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the legal limit (permissible exposure limit) for the workplace at 1 mg/m per 8-hour workday, excluding nickel carbonyl. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) sets the recommended exposure limit (REL) at 0.015 mg/m per 8-hour workday. At 10 mg/m, nickel is immediately dangerous to life and health. Nickel carbonyl is an extremely toxic gas. The toxicity of metal carbonyls is a function of both the toxicity of the metal and the off-gassing of carbon monoxide from the carbonyl functional groups; nickel carbonyl is also explosive in air.Stellman, Jeanne Mager (1998). 9789221098164, International Labour Organization. . ISBN 9789221098164
Sensitized persons may show a skin contact allergy to nickel known as a contact dermatitis. Highly sensitized persons may also react to foods with high nickel content. Patients with Dyshidrosis may also be sensitive to nickel. Nickel is the top confirmed contact allergen worldwide, partly due to its use in jewelry for . Nickel allergies affecting pierced ears are often marked by itchy, red skin. Many earrings are now made without nickel or with low-release nickel Dermal Exposure: Nickel Alloys Nickel Producers Environmental Research Association (NiPERA), accessed 2016 Feb.11 to address this problem. The amount allowed in products that contact human skin is now regulated by the European Union. In 2002, researchers found that the nickel released by 1 and 2 euro coins, far exceeded those standards. This is believed to be due to a Galvanization reaction. Nickel was voted Allergen of the Year in 2008 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society. In August 2015, the American Academy of Dermatology adopted a position statement on the safety of nickel: "Estimates suggest that contact dermatitis, which includes nickel sensitization, accounts for approximately $1.918 billion and affects nearly 72.29 million people." Position Statement on Nickel Sensitivity . American Academy of Dermatology(August 22, 2015)
Reports show that both the nickel-induced activation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1) and the up-regulation of hypoxia-inducible genes are caused by depletion of intracellular ascorbate. The addition of ascorbate to the culture medium increased the intracellular ascorbate level and reversed both the metal-induced stabilization of HIF-1- and HIF-1α-dependent gene expression.
|
|
