Nickel

Nickel is the chemical element with atomic number 28 and the symbol Ni. It is a silvery metal in group 10 of the periodic table that resists corrosion even at high temperatures. Most nickel is used to make alloys such as stainless steel, and it also appears in coins, batteries and catalysts.

History of nickel

Nickel was in use long before it was identified. Meteorites contain both iron and nickel, and early peoples used meteoric metal as a superior form of iron. Because the metal did not rust, the native people of Peru regarded it as a kind of silver. A zinc-nickel alloy called pai-t’ung, or white copper, was in use in China as long ago as 200 BC, and some of it even reached Europe.

In 1751 the Swedish chemist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, working in Stockholm, investigated a mineral from a mine at Los in Halsingland, Sweden. The mineral is now called nickeline. He thought it might contain copper, but what he extracted was a new metal, which he announced and named nickel in 1754.

The name is a shortened form of the German word kupfernickel, which means either devil’s copper or St. Nicholas’s copper. Many chemists thought the new metal was an alloy of cobalt, arsenic, iron and copper, because those elements were present as trace contaminants. It was not until 1775 that Torbern Bergman produced pure nickel, which confirmed that it was an element.

Properties of nickel

Nickel has a standard atomic weight of about 58.693, and NIST lists it as 58.6934 with an uncertainty of 4 in the last digit. A nickel atom has 28 protons and an electron configuration of [Ar] 4s2 3d8, meaning the arrangement of argon plus two electrons in the 4s level and eight in the 3d level.

At room temperature nickel is a solid with a density of 8.912 grams per cubic centimeter. PubChem gives a melting point of 1,728 kelvins, about 1,455 degrees Celsius, and a boiling point of 3,186 kelvins, about 2,913 degrees Celsius. Nickel is a transition metal, and its common oxidation states are plus 3 and plus 2. An oxidation state is a number that tracks how many electrons an atom has lost or shared in a compound.

Nickel melts at 1,728 kelvins, a little below cobalt at 1,768 kelvins, and its density of 8.912 grams per cubic centimeter is slightly higher than the 8.86 of cobalt.

PubChem also records an electronegativity of 1.91 on the Pauling scale, a first ionization energy of 7.640 electronvolts, an electron affinity of 1.156 electronvolts and an atomic radius of 163 picometers. The Royal Society of Chemistry describes nickel as a silvery metal that resists corrosion even at high temperatures.

The resistance of nickel to corrosion, even at high temperatures, is the property behind most of its uses, from nichrome heating elements to protective plating.

Occurrence and production of nickel

Most nickel is extracted from iron-nickel sulfide minerals such as pentlandite. It is also found in other minerals, including garnierite. A sulfide is a compound in which a metal is combined with sulfur.

A substantial amount of the nickel on Earth arrived with meteorites. One of these landed in the region near Ontario, Canada, hundreds of millions of years ago, and that region is now responsible for about 15 percent of the world’s nickel production.

Nickel and iron occur together in meteorites, which is also why iron objects of meteoric origin from ancient Egypt contain about 7.5 percent nickel. Pentlandite is an iron-nickel sulfide, so the same mineral carries both metals.

Uses of nickel

Nickel is mainly used in making alloys, with stainless steel the best known. An alloy is a mixture of a metal with other elements, made to improve strength or other properties. Nichrome is an alloy of nickel and chromium with small amounts of silicon, manganese and iron. It resists corrosion even when red hot, so it is used in toasters and electric ovens. A copper-nickel alloy is commonly used in desalination plants, which convert seawater into fresh water. Nickel steel is used for armor plating, and other nickel alloys go into boat propeller shafts and turbine blades.

Nickel is also used to plate other metals and protect them from corrosion. It is used in batteries, including rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries and the nickel-metal hydride batteries used in hybrid vehicles.

Nickel has a long history in coins. The United States five-cent piece, known as a nickel, is 25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper. Finely divided nickel is used as a catalyst for hydrogenating vegetable oils, which means adding hydrogen to them. Adding nickel to glass gives it a green color.

Isotopes of nickel

NIST lists five stable isotopes of nickel: nickel-58, nickel-60, nickel-61, nickel-62 and nickel-64. Nickel-58 is the most abundant at about 68.077 percent of natural nickel, followed by nickel-60 at about 26.223 percent. The remaining three are much rarer, at about 3.635 percent (nickel-62), 1.140 percent (nickel-61) and 0.926 percent (nickel-64). Isotopes are forms of an element with different numbers of neutrons.

Nickel-58 and nickel-60 together account for about 94.3 percent of natural nickel. The isotopes range from nickel-58 to nickel-64, and the standard atomic weight of 58.693 reflects the mixture of all five.

Health and environmental effects of nickel

The biological role of nickel is uncertain. It can affect the growth of plants and has been shown to be essential to some species. One example is the navy bean used for baked beans, which is why the Royal Society of Chemistry notes that baked beans contain a surprising amount of nickel.

Nickel cannot be avoided completely, since people take in nickel compounds with their diet. Some nickel compounds can cause cancer if their dust is inhaled, and some people are allergic to contact with the metal. The information here is general background rather than health advice.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 4, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue