THE NICKEL BEHIND THE NICKEL

The word “nickel” is a homonym with two distinct meanings. It refers to both our five-cent coin and an element. Everyone is familiar with the coin, but not necessarily with the element.

- STEVE VOYNICK

Pure nickel is a lustrous metal with a silvery-white color and a slight golden tinge. As a siderophilic element, it associates readily with iron and even shares some of iron’s properties. Its melting temperature, density, magnetic properties, and hardness are generally similar to those of iron. But iron oxidizes (rusts) readily, while nickel strongly resists oxidation.

Nickel is the Earth’s fifth most abundant element; most, however, is thought to be combined with iron in the Earth’s core. In crustal abundance, nickel ranks 28th among the elements and is about as common as copper. Native (elemental) nickel is rare in the crust but common in meteorites, mainly as the iron-nickel alloy taenite.

Tools and weapons of exceptional quality were fashioned from meteoritic taenite as early as 3500 BCE. By 1700 BCE, Chinese metallurgists were unknowingly using nickel in copper alloys.