Tubing made of copper-nickel alloy is extensively used in making desalination plants for converting sea water into fresh water. It is extensively used for making stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant alloys such as Invar(R), Monel(R), Inconel(R), and the Hastelloys(R). It belongs to the iron-cobalt group of metals and is chiefly valuable for the alloys it forms. It is hard, malleable, ductile, somewhat ferromagnetic, and a fair conductor of heat and electricity. Nickel is silvery white and takes on a high polish.

Other deposits are found in New Caledonia, Australia, Cuba, Indonesia, and elsewhere. Nickel is obtained commercially from pentlandite and pyrrhotite of the Sudbury region of Ontario, a district that produces about 30 percent of the world's supply of nickel. Iron meteorites, or siderites, may contain iron alloyed with from 5 percent to nearly 20 percent nickel. Nickel is found as a constituent in most meteorites and often serves as one of the criteria for distinguishing a meteorite from other minerals. Cronstedt discovered nickel in 1751 in kupfernickel (niccolite). Nickel is also used in nickel-metal-hydride (Ni-MH) rechargeable batteries.Ĥ, 3, 2, 1, −1, −2 (a mildly basic oxide)įrom the German word Nickel (Satan), and from kupfernickel, Old Nick's copper. The American nickel is made up of a nickel-copper alloy.

Nickel periodic table