Nickel · element 28
The coin metal that is mostly not in coins, and the reason stainless steel bends instead of shattering
Key facts
Nickel takes its name from a German miners' curse. Ore that looked like copper but yielded none was called kupfernickel, roughly Old Nick's copper, after a mischievous spirit. The metal hiding inside it turned out to be one of the most useful of all. It resists corrosion, stays tough in the cold, takes a bright polish and, alloyed with chromium and iron, makes the stainless steel that is both rust-proof and easy to shape.
Nickel is also the second most abundant element in the Earth's core after iron, and the two metals arrive together in most iron meteorites.
Where it is found
Nickel comes from two very different kinds of deposit. Sulfide ores, formed from molten rock, are mined in Canada's Sudbury basin, at Norilsk in Siberia, and in Western Australia. Laterite ores, formed by long tropical weathering of nickel-rich rock, are mined in Indonesia, the Philippines and New Caledonia, and Indonesia has recently become the largest producer by a wide margin. Nickel minerals include pentlandite, garnierite and the copper-coloured nickeline that gave the metal its name.
Nickel is a trace element in soils and plants, and a few plants known as hyperaccumulators concentrate it to extraordinary levels, one tree in New Caledonia bleeding blue-green sap that is rich in nickel. In humans it has no confirmed essential role, but some bacteria and plants rely on nickel-containing enzymes, including the one that breaks down urea.
How it was discovered
Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, a Swedish mineralogist, studied the troublesome kupfernickel ore from a cobalt mine in 1751 expecting to find copper. Instead he obtained a hard, whitish metal with unfamiliar properties and named it nickel after the ore. Other chemists argued for years that it was a mixture of known metals, until Torbern Bergman prepared a pure sample in 1775 and settled the matter. Unknown to Europe, an alloy called paktong, or white copper, containing nickel had been made in China for centuries and exported as a silver substitute.
What we use it for
About two thirds of nickel goes into stainless steel, where it makes the metal more ductile and more resistant to corrosion; the common 18/8 grade in kitchen sinks contains 8 per cent nickel. Nickel superalloys, which stay strong at red heat, form jet engine turbine blades and discs. Nickel plating protects steel and provides the base layer under decorative chrome.
Nickel is a key part of many rechargeable batteries: nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride cells in older devices, and now the high-nickel cathodes of electric car batteries, where more nickel means more range. Coins are a familiar use, though the American five cent nickel is three quarters copper. Nickel catalysts turn vegetable oils into solid fats, nickel-titanium memory alloy springs back into shape in spectacle frames and medical stents, and Invar, a nickel-iron alloy that barely expands when heated, is used in precision instruments.
Reading the numbers
Nickel melts at about 1455 °C and boils at about 2730 °C, a little lower than iron and cobalt. Its density of 8.908 g/cm³ is about 13 per cent higher than iron's. The configuration [Ar] 3d8 4s2 gives ten outer electrons, but nickel is a conservative element and almost always forms Ni2+ in its compounds, which are typically green. Its first ionisation energy of 737 kJ per mole is slightly lower than cobalt's. Nickel is ferromagnetic, the third of the three room-temperature magnetic elements, but it loses its magnetism above about 355 °C, far below iron and cobalt. In group 10 it completes the iron, cobalt, nickel trio. Its atomic mass of 58.69 is less than cobalt's 58.93, even though it comes later, because natural nickel is dominated by the light isotope nickel-58.
Safety and the environment
Nickel is the most common cause of metal allergy. Contact with nickel-containing jewellery, watch straps, jeans buttons and phone cases leaves many people with itchy rashes, and the European Union limits how much nickel can leach from items that touch the skin. Nickel compounds and refinery dust are classed as carcinogenic when inhaled, and nickel carbonyl gas is extremely toxic. Environmentally, sulfide smelting has released enormous quantities of sulfur dioxide, and Sudbury and Norilsk were notorious for dead landscapes downwind, while laterite mining strips tropical forest. Rising demand for battery nickel makes responsible mining and recycling urgent.
Did you know?
- The Sudbury nickel deposits in Canada formed when a huge meteorite struck around 1.85 billion years ago, melting the crust and letting metal-rich magma pool.
- The American nickel coin is 75 per cent copper and only 25 per cent nickel.
- Nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy, remembers its shape: bend it, warm it, and it springs back, which is why it is used for stents and unbreakable spectacle frames.
- A tree in New Caledonia, Pycnandra acuminata, has sap so rich in nickel that it runs blue-green.
- Nickel loses its magnetism at about 355 °C, a much lower temperature than iron or cobalt.
- Nickel is thought to make up around five per cent of the Earth's core, alloyed with iron.
More in the transition metals
Column-mates come first, since elements in one column have outer electrons arranged in a similar way and tend to behave alike; the rest are the nearest neighbours in the family.
See all 38 transition metals on one page, or browse all 118 elements.
Compare Nickel with another element
Each comparison has a side-by-side data table and a plain-English summary of the differences.
Frequently asked questions
Is nickel magnetic?
Yes. Nickel is one of only three elements that are ferromagnetic at room temperature, alongside iron and cobalt. It loses this magnetism above about 355 °C, which is lower than the other two.
Why does nickel cause skin allergies?
Sweat slowly dissolves nickel ions from the surface of jewellery, buckles and watch backs, and the ions bind to skin proteins in a way the immune system can learn to attack. Once sensitised, a person reacts to nickel for life, which is why regulations limit nickel release from items that touch skin.
Is a nickel coin made of nickel?
Only partly. The American five cent coin is three quarters copper and one quarter nickel, and it gets its silvery colour from the nickel. Many other countries use similar copper-nickel alloys or nickel-plated steel for coins.
What is nickel used for?
Mostly for stainless steel, then for other corrosion-resistant and heat-resistant alloys such as jet engine superalloys. It is also used in rechargeable batteries, in plating, in coins and as a catalyst.
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Written by Anthony. Updated September 2026. Numerical data from Periodic-Table-JSON (CC BY-SA), cross-checked against the Nickel reference article. Spotted an error? Tell us.