Nickel is present in the many meteoritic materials and generally considered as one of the criteria in the differentiating the meteorite from the minerals. The iron meteorites or siderites contain the iron content as well as nickel is present in 5% to 20% amount. The USA coin of 5 cent consists of 25% nickel. The Nickel Wire is the significant product used in the several industrial applications at the vast rate.
The nickel metal is white color metal and highly polished. It is tough, malleable, and ductile and also shows ferromagnetic nature as well as better conductor of current and heat. Nickel carbonyl [Ni(CO)4] is a severely poisonous gas such that its exposure has not been made more than 0.007 mg per meter cube.
The nickel is chemical element represented with chemical symbol Ni, atomic number 28, atomic mass 58.69, d block element present in the 10th group of periodic table. It is a bright and metallic element comes in the category of metals. Nickel was discovered by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt in 1751 in the Sweden and its name was derived from kupfernickel. Actually nickel minerals were referred as coloring glass green and used for coloring the glass was called as kupfernickel. The nickel element found by Baron Axel Frederik Cronstedt in 1751 was called as niccolite. Actually he wished to find copper from niccolite but failed since he got white metal that he named as nickel after the mineral from which he got it.
Nickel is used to prepare various product forms like nickel wire, nickel bar, nickel rod and nickel sheet and more. The melting point of nickel is 1728 K or 1455 degree C or 2651 degree F. Its boiling point is 3186 K or 2913 degree C or 5275 degree F. The density of solid nickel is 8908 kg per meter cube. The electronic configuration of Nickel is [Ar] 3d8 4s2 and its shell arrangement is 2 . 8 . 16 . 2 and its term sign is 3F4. The pauling electronegativity of nickel is 1.91 pauling units. Its first ionization energy is 737.1 kJ per mol and second ionization energy is 1753.0 kj per mol. The isolation is not essential to prepare nickel in the labs since this metal is already available on the industrial level.
The little amount of pure nickel can be separated in the laboratory by the purification of crude nickel in the presence of carbon monoxide. The middle step in this procedure is the extremely poisonous nickel tetracarbonyl Ni(CO)4. The carbonyl dissociates upon heating up to 250 degree C to produce pure nickel powder.
The nickel tetracarbonyl complex compound is volatile in nature that can be easily obtained from the production vessel as soon as the gas leaves the impurities.On the industrial scale the mond process is used to prepare the nickel following the same procedure. The nickel oxides react with water gas. The oxide reduction takes place with the hydrogen that produces impure nickel that reacts with carbon monoxide of the water gas's component to produce nickel tetracarbonyl. Finally, the thermal decomposition provides the pure nickel metal that is turned further in the nickel resistance wire to use in the various purposes.