NICK-EL

Chem4Kids Scientist Guy with Spiked Hair

If you're from the United States, you know what a nickel is. But do you know about the element nickel? This is another of the common metals that humans use all of the time. A piece of money is only one use. You can find it in alloys, magnets, and pipes.

Nickel was named in 1751 by a chemist named Cronstedt, but was in use for thousands of years before that year. When isolated, nickel is a hard, silvery-white metal that is very shiny when polished. It is located in the fourth period/row on the table of elements, nickel is a transition metal sandwiched between cobalt and copper.

Where else can you find nickel?


		Coins We'll start with the easiest place to see nickel. Check out your pocket change. If you see a nickel... you see nickel.
	Alloys More than many other elements, nickel is used in a variety of metal alloys. You might find it in armor plating, nails, or pipes. It's also used on the surface of other alloys to slow down the naturally occurring corrosion.
		Glass Small amounts of nickel can be used to turn specialty glass a green color.
	Meteors Along with many other elements, nickel is found in meteors. Astronomers believe that there some meteors have very large amounts of nickel. One of those may have hit the Earth and left large nickel deposits in Canada.
		Desalinization Plants When its time to build a huge machine that makes freshwater from saltwater, you need to make sure it will last a while. Saltwater quickly corrodes most metals such as copper. Nickel alloys and plating is used to protect metals and allow them to resist corrosion.

RELATED LINKS

- Chem4Kids: Periodic Table
- Chem4Kids: Atoms
- Chem4Kids: Compounds
- Chem4Kids: Transition Metals
- Chem4Kids: Alloys
- Geography4Kids: Composition of Earth
- Biology4Kids: Animal Systems

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