Atomic Number: 28 Period Number: 4 Group Number: 10
Nickel is a silvery-white, hard metal and belongs to transition metals. It has been used since 3500BC. There is less nickel found on earth's surface and most of them are found in combination with iron. Laterites and garnierite are the most common ores to mine nickels. There are five stable isotopes of nickel in nature: 58Ni, 60Ni, 61Ni, 62Ni and 64Ni.
Nickel-containing materials play a major role in our everyday lives – food preparation equipment, mobile phones, medical equipment, transport, buildings, power generation – the list is almost endless. They are selected because they offer better corrosion resistance, better toughness, better strength at high and low temperatures, and a range of special magnetic and electronic properties. In addition, iron and nickel alloys are used in electronics and specialist engineering, while copper-nickel alloys are used for coinage and marine engineering.
There are many kinds of nickel compounds, such as diamagnetic(K4[Ni2(CN)6]), KNiIO6, BaNiO3, etc. Among them, nickel oxide is widely used as the cathode in many rechargeable batteries, including nickel-cadmium, nickel-hydrogen, nickel iron, and nickel metal hydride.
Physical and Chemical properties:
Atomic Weight: 58.6934
Melting Point: 1728 K
Boiling Point: 3186 K
Density: 8.912 g/cm3
Phase at Room Temperature: Solid
Element Classification: Metal
Ionization Energy: 7.640 eV
Oxidation States: +3, +2
See also:
Wikipedia - Basics on Nickel
WebElements - The basic elements of Nickel
Jefferson Lab - Learning about Nickel
