For one or two thousands of years, men have used nickel in lots of their requirements. Back then, they weren't privy to the chemical properties of the component and they could use nickel alloys in a variety of applications as well .
What's nickel?
Nickel is a flexible metal, a chemical element, with an atomic number of twenty-eight and chemical symbol Ni. It is luminous and regularly silvery-white in appearance. It's a ferromagnetic part that may exist in room temperature. There are only three other elements that have the same characteristic : gadolinium, iron and cobalt.
How was nickel discovered?
It is thought that man has used nickel as early as 3500 BC. Nonetheless it was only in 1751 it was classified and recognized as a chemical part by Swedish chemist and mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt who, at first, thought it was a copper mineral. Since that time, significant nickel ore minerals have been discovered, such as limonite, pentlandite and garnierite.
What are the properties of nickel?
The properties of nickel are split into atomic, physical, isotopes, and chemical. Its atomic properties include its electronic configuration, electron structure, and other electron-related stuff.
Its physical properties include its color ( which is silvery-white ), magnetic abilities ( like what was mentioned earlier, it is among the 4 elements that have magnetic abilities at room temperature, but is non-magnetic when exposed to temperature larger than that ), and unit cell structure ( nickel has a face targeted cubic unit cell ). It is also ductile and hard.
Nickel has 5 stable isotopes, which has an unique set of properties and characteristics. And when we talk of nickel's chemical properties, it occurs in several oxidization states. The commonest among them all is +2.
Where is nickel used?
A lot of industries today make use of nickel in their operations. Some of the products that use nickel are chargeable batteries, chrome steel, coinage, electrical guitar strings, magnets, nickel alloys and other kinds of alloys, including bronze, copper, lead, silver, gold, cobalt, aluminum and chromium. It is furthermore used to make nickel cast irons and nickel steels.
Nickel alloys are commonly used in power plants, gas and oil plants, and other processing factories. They're good at corrosion resistance and heat regulation. They also are exploited in nuclear reactors and solar engineering. In our household, nickel alloys are found in our electric heaters, cookers and other appliance.
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