Materials
Nickel
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A hard, silvery-white, corrosion-resistant transition metal, used almost entirely as an alloying and coating agent rather than in pure form. Its two industrially dominant roles are as the key alloying element in stainless steel, giving it corrosion resistance and toughness, and in nickel-based superalloys used in jet-engine and gas-turbine components, which retain strength at extreme temperatures; it is also widely used in electroplating and in nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hydride battery electrodes. It was isolated from an ore Saxon miners had already nicknamed "kupfernickel," roughly "Devil's copper" or "false copper," out of frustration at being unable to extract any copper from it.
Facts
Primary UseCorrosion-resistant alloying agent, chiefly stainless steel and nickel-based superalloys for jet engines and gas turbines; also electroplating and nickel-cadmium/nickel-metal-hydride battery electrodes. 1 Origin YearAxel Fredrik Cronstedt isolated nickel from a Los, Sweden cobalt-mine ore, reporting it to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; he did not name the element until a follow-up 1754 paper, and full acceptance that it was a genuinely new element rather than a mixture took further years to settle. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Invar is roughly 64 percent iron and 36 percent nickel; its low-expansion behavior comes from the nickel content.
Nickel is a key alloying element in austenitic stainless steels, improving corrosion resistance and formability.
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