Nickel

• Overview

  Nickel is a silver white transition metal, in the air is easy to be oxidized by air, the surface of the formation of some hair wood oxide film, so people see the nickel often color hair wood. Nickel is hard, ductile, magnetic, resistant to corrosion, and highly polished. Nickel is very abundant in the earth's crust. It exists in nature as nickel silicate ore or sulfur, arsenic and nickel compounds. Nickel has a Curie temperature of 355 °C, above which large pieces of nickel lose their magnetism.

  
  

  Commercially pure or low-alloy nickel has characteristics that are useful in several fields, notably chemical processing and electronics. Nickel is highly resistant to various reducing chemicals and is unexcelled in resistance to caustic alkalies. Compared with nickel alloys, commercially pure nickel has high electrical and thermal conductivity. It also has a high Curie temperature and good magnetostrictive properties. Annealed nickel has a low hardness and good ductility and malleability. Those attributes, combined with good weldability, make the metal highly fabricable. Nickel has a relatively low work-hardening rate, but it can be cold worked to moderately high strength levels while maintaining ductility.

• Physical Properties

  Density:8.9g/cm³

  Melting point:1455 °C

  Boiling point:2730 °C

  Curie temperature:355 °C

• Chemical Properties

  Nickel is chemically reactive but more stable than iron. The nickel metal reacts slowly with the surrounding air because a protective oxide has formed on its surface. At room temperature, it is difficult to oxidize in air and react with concentrated nitric acid. Fine nickel wire is flammable, reacts with halogens when heated, and slowly dissolves in dilute acid. It absorbs a fair amount of hydrogen. Nickel is insoluble in water and forms a dense oxide film on the surface of the humid air at room temperature, which can prevent the continued oxidation of the main metal.

• Application

  Nickel is often used in the manufacture of stainless steel, alloy structural steel and other steel fields, electroplating, high nickel base alloy and battery fields, widely used in aircraft, radar and other military manufacturing, civil machinery manufacturing and plating industry. Can be used to make money, etc., plating on other metals can prevent rust.