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Nickel and Nickel Alloys: An Overview
Nickel and Nickel Alloys: An Overview$ JH Weber, Special Metals Corp., Huntington, WV, USA MK Banerjee, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India r 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1 Introduction 2 Nickel Extraction 3 Nickel Alloys References Further Reading
1
1 1 2 3 3
Introduction
Nickel is capable to provide quite a high strength at 1000 1C and its alloys are highly corrosion resistant. It is extensively used for electroplating and manufacturing of batteries (Gogebakan et al., 2015). The uses of nickel in ancient times were for simple tools and coinage. Examples of such uses include tools made from meteoric iron–nickel about 4000 BC and Bactrian coins containing 10–20% nickel from ca. 200 BC. The proportion of nickel in these implements appears to be in proportion to the levels in naturally occurring ore bodies. The modern history of nickel began with the isolation of nickel by A. F. Cronstedt in the mid-eighteenth century. He named the element nickel, after kupfernickel, the ore in which large amounts of the element were found. By the early nineteenth century Europeans had begun to recover nickel from ores. Use of nickel in plating processes subsequently became commercially viable. Improvements in smelting and refining techniques allowed metal of sufficient purity and quantity to be available for alloying both in other metal systems and as a base alloying element. Alloy steels containing nickel were introduced before the end of the nineteenth century. Continuing research and development work in the late nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century has led to emergence of wide variety of corrosion-resistant and heat-resistant nickel alloys for uses ranging from cryogenic to 1300 1C and above. Approximate dates for the commercial introduction and production of selected alloys include: early controlled expansion nickel–iron alloys in the 1890s; designed composition nickel–copper and nickel–chromium alloys in the 1900s; initial nickel– chromium–iron corrosion-resistant alloys and early nickel–iron–aluminum magnetic alloys in the 1930s; and the simplest nickelbase superalloys in the 1940s. More complex alloy compositions have been introduced over the past several decades. These alloy developments have been enabled by the introduction of improved production processes, including vacuum induction melting, electroflux and vacuum arc remelting, and better control of conventional hot and cold deformation techniques. The advantages of nickel for use in a wide range of applications are based on its physical and mechanical properties. Nickel occurs in the first transition element row in group 10 (VIIIB) of the Periodic Table, has a high melting temperature (1453 1C); face centered cubic (FCC) crystal structure of nickel makes it a ductile metal. Nickel also exhibits mild ferromagnetism at room temperature and has chemical properties that allow it to be combined readily with other elements to form useful alloys. Table 1 summarizes some of the physical properties of nickel.
2
Nickel Extraction
Nickel is the earth’s fifth most abundant element, comprising about 3% of the earth’s total composition. However, the earth’s crust contains only about 0.009% nickel, while the core is composed of about 7% nickel. So despite its seemingly high occurrence, only a few major nickel deposits are of sufficient concentration to warrant recovery for the nickel content alone, or in combination with other metallic elements. Nickel ores that can be mined economically are classified into two general groups: sulfides and laterites. The sulfide ores are typically found deep under the earth’s surface and are recovered by underground mining. Lateritic ores, formed by the weathering of exposed nickel-containing rocks, are primarily distributed through tropical latitudes and are recovered by surface mining methods. Recent emphasis has been on the development of facilities to recover nickel from lateritic ores, partly because the exploitation of the sulfide ores has been quite heavy. Sulfide ores, containing copper, nickel, and iron minerals as distinct minerals, ☆
Change History: July 2015, M.K. Bnerjee updated the abstract, keywords and new additions were made in Section 2. Section 3 and References were newly added.
Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering
doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803581-8.02572-8
1
2
Nickel and Nickel Alloys: An Overview
Table 1
Some physical properties of nickel
Atomic weight Crystal structure Lattice constant at 25 1C (nm) Density at 20 1C (g cm3) Melting temperature (1C) Specific heat at 20 1C (kJ kg1 K1) Thermal expansion coefficient, average 20–1001 (106 K1) Thermal conductivity (W m1 K1) at 100 1C at 300 1C at 500 1C Electrical resistivity at 20 1C (mO cm) Curie temperature (1C) Saturation magnetization (T) Residual magnetization (T) Coercive force (A m1) Modulus of elasticity (GPa) tension shear Poisson’s ratio
58.71 FCC 0.35238 8.908 1453 0.44 13.3 82.8 63.6 61.9 6.97 353 0.617 0.300 239 206.0 73.6 0.30
can be concentrated using mechanical means, such as magnetic separation and flotation. By contrast, the lateritic ores must be treated chemically to extract the nickel. Each lateritic source has characteristics unique to its geographical area and requires specific processes to convert the ore to forms amenable to routine refining. Cuba, Russia, and Canada have the largest economic reserves. Mine production of nickel in 1997 was slightly greater than 1 million tons. Russia produced about 22%, Canada about 19%, and New Caledonia and Australia about 12% each in 1997. Nickel is commercially available in many forms. High purity forms, used for the production of nickel-base superalloys and magnetic materials, include electrolytic cathodes, carbonyl pellets, and to a lesser degree rondelles and briquettes. Nickel powder is produced and used in the manufacture of porous electrodes for batteries and powder metallurgy parts. Nickel is also available as ferronickel and nickel oxide – forms widely used by foundries and in the production of stainless steel. Nickel salts, such as nickel chloride, nickel sulfate, and nickel nitrate, are also produced. Stated the sources and forms of natural occurrence of nickel, it is easy to reconcile that the commonly used extraction processes of nickel from its ores are carried out with roasting followed by reduction. This pyro-metallurgical process is deficient in respect of yielding high purity nickel. The impure nickel is often subjected to Mond process which enables to achieve 99.99% nickel. In this process, nickel is reacted with CO to form volatile carbonyl. Nickel carbonyl vapor is subsequently allowed to condense over pure nickel substrate. Thus carbonyl decomposes and high purity nickel is obtained (Shabani et al., 2008). On many occasions, nickel is extracted from lean sources by solvent extraction process (Begum et al., 2012)
3
Nickel Alloys
Nickel alloys are employable under extremely corrosive environments in power, chemical, and petrochemical industries. Moreover, nickel-based superalloys have excellent high temperature properties and are produced by alloying nickel with cobalt, chromium, aluminum, titanium, and other refractory elements. Directionally solidified superalloys gives rise to high strength at 1000 1C and are suitable for the hottest parts of power generating gas turbines in aircraft (Sorrel, 1997, 1998). Nickel alloys are corrosion resistive to aqueous solution of halides as in contrast with austenitic stainless steels which are known to be highly susceptible to pitting corrosion in chloride ions. The corrosion resistance conferred by nickel is due to its lower reactivity than iron or its alloys. A broad range of nickel alloys are commercially available; nickel–copper alloy which contains 31% copper and 1% iron, performs best in reducing environment or halogen acids. Nickel is highly ductile and possesses low thermal expansion coefficient. This is why nickel rich welding consumables are widely used for critical welding processes. Addition of chromium and molybdenum produces an excellent corrosion-resistant alloy which can be used in highly aggressive environment. Moreover, nickel alloy 625 of nominal composition, 62Ni–21Cr–9Mo–2.5 Fe–4 (Nb þ Ta) is highly resistant to fatigue and thermal fatigue. Though nickel alloys are high performing, they are very costly; therefore the selection of these alloys in place of austenitic stainless steels are justified only when there is a demand for higher capabilities, lower maintenance and longer life in service. When the life cycle cost is given due weightage, nickel alloys are found to have definite edges over its’ stainless steel counterparts. Nickel– chromium alloys are quite suitable for oxidation resistant applications; also these alloys are very effective for such application that
Nickel and Nickel Alloys: An Overview
3
requires high resistance to failure for the loss of strength at high temperatures. In cases of relatively less important application areas, attention is paid to reduce the cost of the alloy by replacing a part of nickel with iron. 80Ni–6Cu–5Mo alloy is known as Mu metal and acts as excellent shielding material for electrical sensors due to being a soft magnetic material. Nickel–iron alloy is used for cases where low thermal coefficient of expansion is required, for example, springs of high precision, as in watches. Invar is an alloy of composition Fe-36 nickel and is widely used for pendulum and other applications where thermal expansion needs to be extremely small in order to maintain high dimensional stability under situation of frequent temperature fluctuation. Permalloy is a highly magnetic alloy, having chemical composition, 80% nickel, 15% iron, and 5% molybdenum. It is employed as a magnetic core material in electrical equipment. Permalloy has high relative permeability as compared to ordinary steel. So it provides minimal core losses at low field strengths. It is very commonly used for transformer lamination, recording heads, relays, etc. (see Nickel Magazine, 2011; Yun et al., 2014).
References Begum, N., Bari, F., Jamaluddin., S.B., Hussin., K., 2012. Solvent extraction of copper nickel, and zinc by cyanex. International Journal of Physical Sciences 7 (22), 2905–2910. and related references. Gogebakan, M., Kursun, C., Gunduz, K.O., Tarakci, M., Gencer, Y., 2015. Microstructural and mechanical properties of binary Ni−Si eutectic alloys. Journal of Alloys and Compound V-643, S219–S225. Nickel Magazine, 2011. Nickel and its alloys. Nickel Magazine. March 2003 (retrieved in 20 March). Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.nickelinstitute.org" www. nickelinstitute.org (accessed 24.09.15). Shabani, H., Dadfarnia., A.M., Shahbaazi., S., Jafari., Z., 2008. Extraction-spectrophotometric determination of nickel at microgram level in water and wastewater using 2-[(2-mercaptophenylimino) methyl] phenol. Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia 22, 323–329. Sorrel, G., 1997. Corrosion Resistant Nickel Alloys Part I and Part II,. Nickel Development Institute. Sorrel, G., 1998. Corrosion Resistant Nickel Alloys Part I and Part II,. Nickel Development Institute. Yun, D.W., Seo, S.M., Jeong, H.W., Kim, I.S., Yoo, Y.S., 2014. Modelling high temperature oxidation behaviour of Ni−Cr−W−Mo alloys with Bayesian neural network. Journal of Alloys and Compound V-587, 105–112.
Further Reading American Metal Market Metal Statistics, 1998. Nonferrous Edition 1998 Cahner’s Business Information, New York. Boldt Jr, J.R., 1967. The Winning of Nickel. Canada Toronto, Canada: Longmans. Reed, R.C., 2006. Physical metallurgy of Nickel and its alloys. pp. 33−120 Cambridge University press. Riley, A.O., 1985. Chronology of Nickel. New York: International Nickel Company. Sajjadi, S.A., Elahifar, H.R., Farhangi, H., 2008. Effects of cooling rate on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Ni-base superalloy UDIMET 500. Journal of Alloys and Compound V-455, 215–220. Tundermann, J.H., Tien, J.K., Howson, T.E., 1996. Kirk−Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, fourth ed. New York: Wiley. pp. 1−17.
1 Introduction 2 Nickel Extraction 3 Nickel Alloys References Further Reading
1
1 1 2 3 3
Introduction
Nickel is capable to provide quite a high strength at 1000 1C and its alloys are highly corrosion resistant. It is extensively used for electroplating and manufacturing of batteries (Gogebakan et al., 2015). The uses of nickel in ancient times were for simple tools and coinage. Examples of such uses include tools made from meteoric iron–nickel about 4000 BC and Bactrian coins containing 10–20% nickel from ca. 200 BC. The proportion of nickel in these implements appears to be in proportion to the levels in naturally occurring ore bodies. The modern history of nickel began with the isolation of nickel by A. F. Cronstedt in the mid-eighteenth century. He named the element nickel, after kupfernickel, the ore in which large amounts of the element were found. By the early nineteenth century Europeans had begun to recover nickel from ores. Use of nickel in plating processes subsequently became commercially viable. Improvements in smelting and refining techniques allowed metal of sufficient purity and quantity to be available for alloying both in other metal systems and as a base alloying element. Alloy steels containing nickel were introduced before the end of the nineteenth century. Continuing research and development work in the late nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century has led to emergence of wide variety of corrosion-resistant and heat-resistant nickel alloys for uses ranging from cryogenic to 1300 1C and above. Approximate dates for the commercial introduction and production of selected alloys include: early controlled expansion nickel–iron alloys in the 1890s; designed composition nickel–copper and nickel–chromium alloys in the 1900s; initial nickel– chromium–iron corrosion-resistant alloys and early nickel–iron–aluminum magnetic alloys in the 1930s; and the simplest nickelbase superalloys in the 1940s. More complex alloy compositions have been introduced over the past several decades. These alloy developments have been enabled by the introduction of improved production processes, including vacuum induction melting, electroflux and vacuum arc remelting, and better control of conventional hot and cold deformation techniques. The advantages of nickel for use in a wide range of applications are based on its physical and mechanical properties. Nickel occurs in the first transition element row in group 10 (VIIIB) of the Periodic Table, has a high melting temperature (1453 1C); face centered cubic (FCC) crystal structure of nickel makes it a ductile metal. Nickel also exhibits mild ferromagnetism at room temperature and has chemical properties that allow it to be combined readily with other elements to form useful alloys. Table 1 summarizes some of the physical properties of nickel.
2
Nickel Extraction
Nickel is the earth’s fifth most abundant element, comprising about 3% of the earth’s total composition. However, the earth’s crust contains only about 0.009% nickel, while the core is composed of about 7% nickel. So despite its seemingly high occurrence, only a few major nickel deposits are of sufficient concentration to warrant recovery for the nickel content alone, or in combination with other metallic elements. Nickel ores that can be mined economically are classified into two general groups: sulfides and laterites. The sulfide ores are typically found deep under the earth’s surface and are recovered by underground mining. Lateritic ores, formed by the weathering of exposed nickel-containing rocks, are primarily distributed through tropical latitudes and are recovered by surface mining methods. Recent emphasis has been on the development of facilities to recover nickel from lateritic ores, partly because the exploitation of the sulfide ores has been quite heavy. Sulfide ores, containing copper, nickel, and iron minerals as distinct minerals, ☆
Change History: July 2015, M.K. Bnerjee updated the abstract, keywords and new additions were made in Section 2. Section 3 and References were newly added.
Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering
doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803581-8.02572-8
1
2
Nickel and Nickel Alloys: An Overview
Table 1
Some physical properties of nickel
Atomic weight Crystal structure Lattice constant at 25 1C (nm) Density at 20 1C (g cm3) Melting temperature (1C) Specific heat at 20 1C (kJ kg1 K1) Thermal expansion coefficient, average 20–1001 (106 K1) Thermal conductivity (W m1 K1) at 100 1C at 300 1C at 500 1C Electrical resistivity at 20 1C (mO cm) Curie temperature (1C) Saturation magnetization (T) Residual magnetization (T) Coercive force (A m1) Modulus of elasticity (GPa) tension shear Poisson’s ratio
58.71 FCC 0.35238 8.908 1453 0.44 13.3 82.8 63.6 61.9 6.97 353 0.617 0.300 239 206.0 73.6 0.30
can be concentrated using mechanical means, such as magnetic separation and flotation. By contrast, the lateritic ores must be treated chemically to extract the nickel. Each lateritic source has characteristics unique to its geographical area and requires specific processes to convert the ore to forms amenable to routine refining. Cuba, Russia, and Canada have the largest economic reserves. Mine production of nickel in 1997 was slightly greater than 1 million tons. Russia produced about 22%, Canada about 19%, and New Caledonia and Australia about 12% each in 1997. Nickel is commercially available in many forms. High purity forms, used for the production of nickel-base superalloys and magnetic materials, include electrolytic cathodes, carbonyl pellets, and to a lesser degree rondelles and briquettes. Nickel powder is produced and used in the manufacture of porous electrodes for batteries and powder metallurgy parts. Nickel is also available as ferronickel and nickel oxide – forms widely used by foundries and in the production of stainless steel. Nickel salts, such as nickel chloride, nickel sulfate, and nickel nitrate, are also produced. Stated the sources and forms of natural occurrence of nickel, it is easy to reconcile that the commonly used extraction processes of nickel from its ores are carried out with roasting followed by reduction. This pyro-metallurgical process is deficient in respect of yielding high purity nickel. The impure nickel is often subjected to Mond process which enables to achieve 99.99% nickel. In this process, nickel is reacted with CO to form volatile carbonyl. Nickel carbonyl vapor is subsequently allowed to condense over pure nickel substrate. Thus carbonyl decomposes and high purity nickel is obtained (Shabani et al., 2008). On many occasions, nickel is extracted from lean sources by solvent extraction process (Begum et al., 2012)
3
Nickel Alloys
Nickel alloys are employable under extremely corrosive environments in power, chemical, and petrochemical industries. Moreover, nickel-based superalloys have excellent high temperature properties and are produced by alloying nickel with cobalt, chromium, aluminum, titanium, and other refractory elements. Directionally solidified superalloys gives rise to high strength at 1000 1C and are suitable for the hottest parts of power generating gas turbines in aircraft (Sorrel, 1997, 1998). Nickel alloys are corrosion resistive to aqueous solution of halides as in contrast with austenitic stainless steels which are known to be highly susceptible to pitting corrosion in chloride ions. The corrosion resistance conferred by nickel is due to its lower reactivity than iron or its alloys. A broad range of nickel alloys are commercially available; nickel–copper alloy which contains 31% copper and 1% iron, performs best in reducing environment or halogen acids. Nickel is highly ductile and possesses low thermal expansion coefficient. This is why nickel rich welding consumables are widely used for critical welding processes. Addition of chromium and molybdenum produces an excellent corrosion-resistant alloy which can be used in highly aggressive environment. Moreover, nickel alloy 625 of nominal composition, 62Ni–21Cr–9Mo–2.5 Fe–4 (Nb þ Ta) is highly resistant to fatigue and thermal fatigue. Though nickel alloys are high performing, they are very costly; therefore the selection of these alloys in place of austenitic stainless steels are justified only when there is a demand for higher capabilities, lower maintenance and longer life in service. When the life cycle cost is given due weightage, nickel alloys are found to have definite edges over its’ stainless steel counterparts. Nickel– chromium alloys are quite suitable for oxidation resistant applications; also these alloys are very effective for such application that
Nickel and Nickel Alloys: An Overview
3
requires high resistance to failure for the loss of strength at high temperatures. In cases of relatively less important application areas, attention is paid to reduce the cost of the alloy by replacing a part of nickel with iron. 80Ni–6Cu–5Mo alloy is known as Mu metal and acts as excellent shielding material for electrical sensors due to being a soft magnetic material. Nickel–iron alloy is used for cases where low thermal coefficient of expansion is required, for example, springs of high precision, as in watches. Invar is an alloy of composition Fe-36 nickel and is widely used for pendulum and other applications where thermal expansion needs to be extremely small in order to maintain high dimensional stability under situation of frequent temperature fluctuation. Permalloy is a highly magnetic alloy, having chemical composition, 80% nickel, 15% iron, and 5% molybdenum. It is employed as a magnetic core material in electrical equipment. Permalloy has high relative permeability as compared to ordinary steel. So it provides minimal core losses at low field strengths. It is very commonly used for transformer lamination, recording heads, relays, etc. (see Nickel Magazine, 2011; Yun et al., 2014).
References Begum, N., Bari, F., Jamaluddin., S.B., Hussin., K., 2012. Solvent extraction of copper nickel, and zinc by cyanex. International Journal of Physical Sciences 7 (22), 2905–2910. and related references. Gogebakan, M., Kursun, C., Gunduz, K.O., Tarakci, M., Gencer, Y., 2015. Microstructural and mechanical properties of binary Ni−Si eutectic alloys. Journal of Alloys and Compound V-643, S219–S225. Nickel Magazine, 2011. Nickel and its alloys. Nickel Magazine. March 2003 (retrieved in 20 March). Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.nickelinstitute.org" www. nickelinstitute.org (accessed 24.09.15). Shabani, H., Dadfarnia., A.M., Shahbaazi., S., Jafari., Z., 2008. Extraction-spectrophotometric determination of nickel at microgram level in water and wastewater using 2-[(2-mercaptophenylimino) methyl] phenol. Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia 22, 323–329. Sorrel, G., 1997. Corrosion Resistant Nickel Alloys Part I and Part II,. Nickel Development Institute. Sorrel, G., 1998. Corrosion Resistant Nickel Alloys Part I and Part II,. Nickel Development Institute. Yun, D.W., Seo, S.M., Jeong, H.W., Kim, I.S., Yoo, Y.S., 2014. Modelling high temperature oxidation behaviour of Ni−Cr−W−Mo alloys with Bayesian neural network. Journal of Alloys and Compound V-587, 105–112.
Further Reading American Metal Market Metal Statistics, 1998. Nonferrous Edition 1998 Cahner’s Business Information, New York. Boldt Jr, J.R., 1967. The Winning of Nickel. Canada Toronto, Canada: Longmans. Reed, R.C., 2006. Physical metallurgy of Nickel and its alloys. pp. 33−120 Cambridge University press. Riley, A.O., 1985. Chronology of Nickel. New York: International Nickel Company. Sajjadi, S.A., Elahifar, H.R., Farhangi, H., 2008. Effects of cooling rate on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Ni-base superalloy UDIMET 500. Journal of Alloys and Compound V-455, 215–220. Tundermann, J.H., Tien, J.K., Howson, T.E., 1996. Kirk−Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, fourth ed. New York: Wiley. pp. 1−17.