Element · Ni

Nickel

The element that makes steel tough at low temperature and stainless at any temperature.

Nickel's main role is as an alloying element. In stainless steel it stabilises the austenitic structure, giving the familiar non-magnetic grades their toughness and formability; in cryogenic steels it keeps the metal from turning brittle at low temperature.

It also plates well, resists corrosion, and — increasingly — goes into battery cathodes, where higher nickel content buys energy density at some cost in stability.

Name origin

From German Kupfernickel, 'devil's copper' — an ore that resembled copper ore and stubbornly refused to yield any copper.

Uses

Nickel's dominant use is stainless steel, where it stabilises the austenitic structure that makes the familiar non-magnetic grades tough and formable. Chromium provides the corrosion resistance; nickel provides the workability.

It is also central to battery chemistry, increasingly so as manufacturers reduce cobalt content. Nickel superalloys are the material of turbine blades, nickel plating protects and hardens surfaces, and nickel catalysts hydrogenate vegetable oils.

Medium confidence Weak evidence

How we know: checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source.

How this connects

Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.

is used as

Alloying — application · stabilises the austenitic structure of stainless steel
Battery electrodes — application · higher nickel content buys energy density at some cost in stability

is a source for

Osmium — element · and of nickel refining, where the platinum-group metals collect
Palladium — element · obtained largely as a by-product of nickel mining
Ruthenium — element · a by-product of nickel refining
NMC cathode — compound · and it must be Class 1, the high-purity grade, which most of the world's nickel is not — Indonesian laterite leached to battery grade has supplied most of the growth

is a component of

Stainless steel — alloy · in the austenitic grades, where it stabilises the tough formable structure
Cupronickel — alloy · 5–40% · the addition that buys the seawater resistance and the silver colour, in any proportion the designer wants — the two metals are completely soluble in one another
Nichrome — alloy · 55–80% · the base metal, and what carries the current
Nickel superalloy — alloy · 50–70% · the base, and what supplies the gamma prime phase the alloy's strength depends on

is extracted from

Pentlandite — mineral · the principal ore of nickel worldwide Wikidata

is produced by

Smelting — process · reduced from roasted pentlandite concentrate, with the platinum-group metals following into the refinery
Solvent extraction and electrowinning — process · from laterite ores, which have no sulfide to float and cannot be smelted economically — leaching is what made them a resource

is an alternative to

Cobalt — element · in battery cathodes, where nickel-rich chemistries were developed specifically to use less cobalt — a substitution driven by the conditions cobalt is mined under as much as by its price
Manganese — element · in austenitic stainless steel, where manganese stabilises the same structure at a fraction of the cost — the 200-series grades exist because of it, and they corrode more readily
Chromium — element · as a plating: nickel goes on first and does the corrosion protection, chromium goes on top and is thin, hard and bright — which is why 'chrome' plating is mostly nickel

is found in

Weathering steel — alloy · 0.1–0.65% · supports the patina and adds toughness
Invar — alloy · 35–37% · 36 per cent, and the figure is exact rather than approximate — the near-zero expansion exists only at that composition, and a per cent either way loses most of it
Nitinol — alloy · 49–57% · roughly half, and controlled to a fraction of a per cent because the transformation temperature moves about ten degrees for every tenth of a per cent
NMC cathode — compound · the capacity, and the fraction the family is named by — 111, 622 and 811 are the nickel-manganese-cobalt ratios
Ferrite — material · in the nickel-zinc grades, which have higher resistivity again and are used above a megahertz
Pentlandite — mineral · substitutes within a solid solution — an individual specimen may hold little of it Wikidata

is used in

Lithium-ion cell — object · in the cathode, and increasing as cobalt falls
Printed circuit board — object · under the gold, as the barrier that stops it diffusing into the copper
Turbine blade — object · the base of the alloy, and the reason it holds strength where steel has none

Sources

Material World
Our own writing
Wikidata
Wikimedia Foundation · Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication)
PubChem
US National Library of Medicine · Mixed — aggregated third-party content, rights retained by depositors
NIST — National Institute of Standards and Technology
United States Department of Commerce · US Government work — public information, credit requested

Questions this page answers

Where it comes from, and what it becomes

Follow Nickel back to what it starts as, and forward into what it becomes. Each step is a documented one — a real route material takes, not a chain of inference.

Upstream — what it comes from

Nickel → is produced by (reduced from roasted pentlandite concentrate, with the platinum-group metals following into the refinery) → Smelting → takes as input (as the element removed, not added) → Oxygen → is produced by (the largest output by tonnage, and the reason air separation units sit beside steelworks) → Air separation → takes as input (the feedstock, and an unusual one in being free, unlimited and available anywhere — the cost is entirely the energy to liquefy it) → Air
Nickel → is produced by (from laterite ores, which have no sulfide to float and cannot be smelted economically — leaching is what made them a resource) → Solvent extraction and electrowinning → takes as input (in the low-grade and oxidised ores that flotation cannot economically treat, with bacteria oxidising the sulfide into a form the acid can attack) → Chalcopyrite
Nickel → is extracted from (the principal ore of nickel worldwide) → Pentlandite
Nickel → is produced by (reduced from roasted pentlandite concentrate, with the platinum-group metals following into the refinery) → Smelting → takes as input (roasted to drive off sulfur, then reduced to copper) → Chalcopyrite
Nickel → is produced by (reduced from roasted pentlandite concentrate, with the platinum-group metals following into the refinery) → Smelting → takes as input (reduced with carbon to metallic tin) → Cassiterite
Nickel → is produced by (reduced from roasted pentlandite concentrate, with the platinum-group metals following into the refinery) → Smelting → takes as input (reduced with coke in a blast furnace) → Hematite

These are the most distinct paths back. Nickel can be traced through others besides.

Downstream — what it becomes

Nickel → is a source for (a by-product of nickel refining) → Ruthenium → is a component of (in the newest generations, to stop the heavy elements segregating into phases that embrittle the blade) → Nickel superalloy → is used in (cast as a single crystal, because at temperature and sustained load the failure mode is creep along grain boundaries — so the boundaries are removed entirely) → Turbine blade → is associated with (the jet engine created the superalloy industry, because no existing material survived the turbine inlet — and turbine temperature has risen about 500 °C since, almost entirely on the blade) → The wartime materials programmes complete chain
Nickel → is a source for (and it must be Class 1, the high-purity grade, which most of the world's nickel is not — Indonesian laterite leached to battery grade has supplied most of the growth) → NMC cathode → is used in (in long-range vehicles and anything that has to be carried, where the requirement is energy per kilogram and no phosphate cathode competes) → Lithium-ion cell → is used in (and portable computing came first by two decades) → Electronics manufacture → is associated with (and the supply chain it produced is the deepest and most concentrated in the world economy) → The semiconductor era complete chain
Nickel → is a component of (in the austenitic grades, where it stabilises the tough formable structure) → Stainless steel → is produced at (discovered here in 1913 by Harry Brearley, investigating gun barrel erosion, and found on a scrap heap because it had not rusted) → Sheffield → is associated with (Bessemer built his first steelworks here in 1858, at the point iron gave way to steel) → Industrial Revolution complete chain
Nickel → is a component of (the base, and what supplies the gamma prime phase the alloy's strength depends on) → Nickel superalloy → is used in (cast as a single crystal, because at temperature and sustained load the failure mode is creep along grain boundaries — so the boundaries are removed entirely) → Turbine blade → is associated with (the jet engine created the superalloy industry, because no existing material survived the turbine inlet — and turbine temperature has risen about 500 °C since, almost entirely on the blade) → The wartime materials programmes complete chain
Nickel → is used in (in the cathode, and increasing as cobalt falls) → Lithium-ion cell → is used in (and portable computing came first by two decades) → Electronics manufacture → is associated with (and the supply chain it produced is the deepest and most concentrated in the world economy) → The semiconductor era complete chain
Nickel → is used in (under the gold, as the barrier that stops it diffusing into the copper) → Printed circuit board → is used in (and it is the change that made electronics manufacturable: assembly stopped being a wiring job and became a printing one) → Electronics manufacture → is associated with (and the supply chain it produced is the deepest and most concentrated in the world economy) → The semiconductor era complete chain

These are the most distinct paths onward. Nickel ends up in others besides.