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Nickel [Ni] locate me
CAS-ID: 7440-02-0
An: 28 N: 31
Am: 58.6934 g/mol
Group No: 10
Group Name: Transition metals
Block: d-block  Period: 4
State: solid at 298 K
Colour: lustrous, metallic, silvery tinge Classification: Metallic
Boiling Point: 3186K (2913°C)
Melting Point: 1728K (1455°C)
Density: 8.908g/cm3
Discovery Information
Who: Axel Cronstedt
When: 1751
Where: Sweden
Name Origin
German: kupfernickel (false copper); nickel (satan).
 "Nickel" in different languages.
Sources
Chiefly found in limonite (Fe,Ni)O(OH), garnierite (Ni,Mg)3Si2O5(OH) and pentlandite [(Ni,Fe)9S8] ore. It is also found in magmatic sulfide deposits where the principal ore mineral is pentlandite, (Ni, Fe)9S8.
Primary producers are Russia, South Africa, Australia, New Caledonia, Cuba, Indonesia, the USA and Canada. Over 1.3 millions tons are produced annually.
Abundance
 Universe: 60 ppm (by weight)
 Sun: 80 ppm (by weight)
 Carbonaceous meteorite: 13000 ppm
 Earth's Crust: 90 ppm
 Seawater:
   Atlantic surface: 1 x 10-4 ppm
   Atlantic deep: 4 x 10-4 ppm
   Pacific surface: 1 x 10-4 ppm
   Pacific deep: 5.7 x 10-4 ppm
 Human:
   100 ppb by weight
   11 ppb by atoms
Uses
Used mainly in metal alloys because of its resistance to corrosion. Also in nickel-cadmium batteries, as a catalyst, a green tint in glass, electroplating and for coins.
Nickel consumption can be summarized as: nickel steels (60%), nickel-copper alloys and nickel silver (14%), malleable nickel, nickel clad and Inconel (9%), plating (6%), nickel cast irons (3%), heat and electric resistance alloys (3%), nickel brasses and bronzes (2%), others (3%).
History
The use of Nickel is ancient, and can be traced back as far as 3500 BC. Bronzes from what is now Syria had a nickel content of up to 2%. Further, there are Chinese manuscripts suggesting that "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 (NiAs)), 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.
Notes
Nickel is magnetic (although the US 'nickel' coin is not as it is mostly copper).
The largest producer of nickel is Russia which extracts 267,000 tonnes of nickel per year. Australia and Canada are the second and third largest producers, making 207 and 189.3 thousand tonnes per year.
Nickel use is ancient, and can be traced back as far as 3500 BC.
Hazards
Exposure to nickel metal and soluble compounds should not exceed 0.05 mg/cm3 in nickel equivalents per 40-hour work week. Nickel sulfide (NiS) fume and dust is believed to be carcinogenic, and various other nickel compounds may be as well.
Powder is pyrophoric - it can ignite spontaneously.