ElementsWhat is nickel?
Nickel is a hard, silvery metal that resists rust. Many iron meteorites contain it, and the Earth's core is thought to be an iron and nickel mix.
What is nickel used for?
Stainless steel takes most of it. Also coins, rechargeable batteries, and plating.
Where the name comes from
From the German word kupfernickel, 'false copper', a name miners gave to an ore that looked like copper ore.
Key facts
- Symbol
- Ni
- Atomic number
- 28
- Atomic mass
- 58.693 u
- Family
- Transition metal
- Period
- 4
- Group
- 10
- Block
- d
- State at room temperature
- Solid
- Melting point
- 1,455 °C (1,728 K, 2,651 °F)
- Boiling point
- 2,913 °C (3,186 K, 5,275 °F)
- Density
- 8.91 g/cm³
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 8, 16, 2
- Electron configuration
- [Ar]4s2 3d8
- Common oxidation states
- +3, +2
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 1.91
- First ionisation energy
- 7.64 eV
- Electron affinity
- 1.156 eV
- Atomic radius (van der Waals)
- 163 pm
- Discovered
- 1751
Place in the periodic table
Nickel is element number 28. It sits in period 4 (row 4) of the periodic table, in group 10 (column 10), and belongs to the d-block. Just before it comes cobalt (27), and just after it comes copper (29). In the same column, palladium is below it. Elements in one column tend to behave alike.
Family: Transition metals.
Physical properties
At room temperature nickel is a solid. It melts at 1,455 °C and boils at 2,913 °C, so it stays liquid over a range of 1,458 degrees. Its density is 8.91 grams per cubic centimetre, so a one-litre block would weigh about 8.91 kilograms. By density it ranks 33rd among the 96 elements with a measured value.
Inside the atom
An atom of nickel has 28 protons in its nucleus and, when neutral, 28 electrons around it. The electrons are arranged in 4 shells: 2, 8, 16, 2. The outermost shell holds 2 electrons. Written in full, the electron configuration is [Ar]4s2 3d8.
Its electronegativity on the Pauling scale is 1.91. This number shows how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons towards itself: fluorine, the strongest, is 3.98. Removing one electron from an atom takes 7.64 electronvolts (about 737 kilojoules per mole). One mole of nickel weighs 58.693 grams, so a single gram contains about 1.03 × 1022 atoms.
The ring picture is a simple model that only counts the electrons in each shell. Real atoms do not look like this.
Next steps
- Work out the weight of a compound that contains nickel with the molar mass calculator.
- Compare it with every other element in the sortable list.
- Test yourself with the symbol quiz.
Figures on this page are from PubChem (U.S. National Library of Medicine), as downloaded on 11 November 2026. See About and data sources.