Applications

* Alloys, such as

o Superalloys, for parts in gas turbine aircraft engines.

o Corrosion- and wear-resistant alloys.

o High speed steels.

o Cemented carbides (also called hard metals) and diamond tools.

* Magnets and magnetic recording media.

o Alnico magnets.

o Samarium-cobalt magnets.

* Catalysts for the petroleum and chemical industries, e.g. for hydroformylation and oxidation.

* Electroplating because of its appearance, hardness, and resistance to oxidation.

* Drying agents for paints, varnishes, and inks.

* Ground coats for porcelain enamels.

* Pigments (cobalt blue and cobalt green).

Cobalt blue glass

Cobalt blue glass

* Lithium ion battery electrodes.

* Steel-belted radial tires.

* Purification of histidine-tagged fusion proteins in biotechnology applications.

Because of its permanence in air and its inertness to oxidation, it is used in coins, for plating iron, brass, etc., for chemical apparatus, and in certain alloys, such as German silver. It is magnetic, and is very frequently accompanied by cobalt, both being found in meteoric iron. It is chiefly valuable for the alloys it forms, especially many superalloys, and particularly stainless steel.

Nickel is used in many industrial and consumer products, including stainless steel, magnets, coinage, and special alloys. It is also used for plating and as a green tint in glass. Nickel is pre-eminently an alloy metal, and its chief use is in the nickel steels and nickel cast irons, of which there are innumberable varieties. It is also widely used for many other alloys, such as nickel brasses and bronzes, and alloys with copper, chromium, aluminum, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold.

Nickel consumption can be summarized as: nickel steels (60%), nickel-copper alloys and nickel silver (14%), malleable nickel, nickel clad and Inconel (9%), plating (6%), nickel cast irons (3%), heat and electric resistance alloys (3%), nickel brasses and bronzes (2%), others (3%).

In the laboratory, nickel is frequently used as a catalyst for hydrogenation, most often using Raney nickel, a finely divided form of the metal.

[edit] Extraction and purification