Nickel

Characteristics

  Nickel is a silvery white sulfur in nickel glance.^[1][2][3]

It is clear that in common with massive forms of titanium metal that nickel is very slow to react with air, but it is a very reactive element.

Because of its permanence in air and its inertness to stainless steel.

Nickel is one of the five magnetostriction.

The most common oxidation state of nickel is +2, though 0, +1, +3 and +4 Ni complexes are observed. It is also thought that a +6 oxidation state may exist, however, results are inconclusive.

The unit cell of nickel is a face centred cube with a lattice parameter of 0.356 nm giving a radius of the atom of 0.126 nm.^{[citation needed]}

Nickel-62 is the most stable nuclide of all the existing elements; it is more stable even than Iron-56.

History

The use of nickel is ancient, and can be traced back as far as 3500 BC. white copper" (i.e. baitung) was used in the Orient between 1700 and 1400 BC. However, because the ores of nickel were easily mistaken for ores of silver, any understanding of this metal and its use dates to more contemporary times.

Minerals containing nickel (e.g. kupfernickel, meaning copper of the devil ("Nick"), or false copper) were of value for colouring glass green. In 1751, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt was attempting to extract copper from kupfernickel (now called niccolite), and obtained instead a white metal that he called nickel.

In the United States, the term "nickel" or "nick" was originally applied to the copper-nickel Indian cent coin introduced in 1859. Later, the name designated the three-cent coin introduced in 1865, and the following year the five-cent shield nickel appropriated the designation, which has remained ever since. Coins of pure nickel were first used in 1881 in Switzerland. [4]

Biological role

Nickel plays numerous roles in biology, though they were not recognized until the 1970s. In fact urease (an enzyme which assists in the hydrolysis of methanogenic archaea.

One of the carbon monoxide dehydrogenase enzymes consists of an Fe-Ni-S cluster.^[5]

Other nickel-containing enzymes include a class of superoxide dismutase^[6] and a glyoxalase.^[7]

Occurrence

The bulk of the nickel mined comes from two types of ore deposits. The first are laterites where the principal ore minerals are nickeliferous pentlandite: (Ni, Fe)₉S₈.

• see Category:Nickel minerals

In terms of supply, the Sudbury region of Ontario, Canada, produces about 30 percent of the world's supply of nickel. The Sudbury Basin deposit is theorized to have been created by a massive meteorite impact event early in the geologic history of Earth. Russia contains about 40% of the world's known resources at the massive Norilsk deposit in Siberia. The Russian mining company silicate minerals. A recent development has been the exploitation of a deposit in western Turkey, especially convenient for European smelters, steelmakers and factories. The one locality in the United States where nickel is commercially mined is Riddle, Oregon, where several square miles of nickel-bearing garnierite surface deposits are located.

Based on geophysical evidence, most of the nickel on Earth is postulated to be concentrated in the Earth's core.

Applications

Nickel is used in many industrial and consumer products, including stainless steel, magnets, coinage, and special alloys. It is also used for plating and as a green tint in glass. Nickel is pre-eminently an alloy metal, and its chief use is in the nickel steels and nickel cast irons, of which there are innumerable varieties. It is also widely used for many other alloys, such as nickel brasses and bronzes, and alloys with copper, chromium, aluminum, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold.

Nickel consumption can be summarized as: nickel steels (60%), nickel-copper alloys and Superalloys (9%), plating (6%), nickel cast irons (3%), heat and electric resistance alloys, such as Nichrome (3%), nickel brasses and bronzes (2%), others (3%).

In the laboratory, nickel is frequently used as a catalyst for Raney nickel, a finely divided form of the metal.

Extraction and purification

  Nickel can be recovered using pyrometallurgical extraction. Recent advances in hydrometallurgical processing of sulphides has led to some recent projects being built around this technology.

Nickel is extracted from its ores by conventional roasting and reduction processes which yield a metal of >75% purity. Final purification in the nickel carbonyl decomposes depositing pure nickel onto the nickel spheres (known as pellets). Alternatively, the nickel carbonyl may be decomposed in a smaller chamber at 230 degrees Celsius to create fine powders. The resultant carbon monoxide is re-circulated through the process. The highly pure nickel produced by this process is known as carbonyl nickel. A second common form of refining involves the leaching of the metal matte followed by the electro-winning of the nickel from solution by plating it onto a cathode. In many stainless steel applications, the nickel can be taken directly in the 75% purity form, depending on the presence of any impurities.

In 2005, Russia was the largest producer of nickel with about one-fifth world share closely followed by Canada, Australia and Indonesia, reports the British Geological Survey.

Compounds

• Kamacite is a naturally occurring carbon may be present. Kamacite occurs in nickel-iron meteorites.

See also nickel compounds.

Isotopes

Main article: Isotopes of nickel

Naturally occurring nickel is composed of 5 stable radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 60 hours and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 30 seconds. This element also has 1 meta state.

Nickel-56 is produced in large quantities in type Ia supernovae and the shape of the light curve of these supernovae corresponds to the decay via beta radiation of nickel-56 to iron-56.

Nickel-59 is a long-lived cosmogenic isotope geology. ⁵⁹Ni has been used to date the terrestrial age of meteorites and to determine abundances of extraterrestrial dust in ice and sediment.

Nickel-60 is the daughter product of the extinct radionuclide ⁶⁰Fe (half-life = 1.5 Myr). Because the extinct radionuclide ⁶⁰Fe had such a long half-life, its persistence in materials in the solar system at high enough concentrations may have generated observable variations in the isotopic composition of ⁶⁰Ni. Therefore, the abundance of ⁶⁰Ni present in extraterrestrial material may provide insight into the origin of the solar system and its early history.

nuclear fusion without losing energy.

Nickel-48, discovered in 1999, is the most proton-rich heavy element isotope known . With 28 Pb) and therefore unusually stable ^[9].

The isotopes of nickel range in u (48-Ni) to 78 u (78-Ni). Nickel-78's half-life was recently measured to be 110 milliseconds and is believed to be an important isotope involved in supernova nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than iron. [5]

Precautions

Exposure to nickel metal and soluble compounds should not exceed 0.05 mg/cm³ in nickel equivalents per 40-hour work week. Nickel sulfide fume and dust is believed to be carcinogenic, and various other nickel compounds may be as well.^[10][11] carbon monoxide gas, and this one is no exception. It is explosive in air.^{[citation needed]}

Sensitised individuals may show an allergy to nickel affecting their skin, also known as dermatitis. The amount of nickel which is allowed in products which come into contact with human skin is regulated by the European Union. In 2002 researchers found amounts of nickel being emitted by 1 and 2 Euro coins far in excess of those standards. This is believed to be due to a galvanic reaction.^[12]

Metal Value

As of April 5, 2007 nickel was trading at 52,300 $US/mt (52.30 $US/kg, 23.51 $US/lb or 1.47 $US/oz), [6] [7]. Interestingly, the US nickel coin contains 0.04 oz (1.25 g) of nickel, which at this new price is worth 6.5 cents, along with 3.75 grams of copper worth about 3 cents, making the metal value over 9 cents. Since a nickel is worth 5 cents, this made it an attractive target for melting by people wanting to sell the metals at a profit. However, the United States Mint, in anticipation of this practice, implemented new interim rules on December 14, 2006, subject to public comment for 30 days, which criminalize the melting and export of cents and nickels.[8] Violators can be punished with a fine of up to US$10,000 and/or imprisoned for a maximum of five years.

At current use rates, the supply of nickel is predicted to run out in 90 years.^[13]

References