Nickel is a chemical element with
the symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a
silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden
tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and
is hard and ductile. Pure nickel, powdered to
maximize the reactive surface area, shows a
significant chemical activity, but larger pieces are
slow to react with air under standard
conditions because an oxide layer forms on the
surface and prevents further corrosion
(passivation). Even so, pure native nickel is found
in Earth's crust only in tiny amounts, usually
in ultramafic rocks, and in the interiors of
larger nickel–iron meteorites that were not
exposed to oxygen when outside Earth's
atmosphere.
Gold is a chemical element with
the symbol Au (from Latin: aurum) and atomic
number 79, making it one of the highest atomic
number elements that occur naturally. In its purest
form, it is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense,
soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold
is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is
one of the least reactive chemical elements and is
solid under standard conditions. Gold often occurs
in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or
grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It
occurs in a solid solution series with the native
element silver (as electrum) and also
naturally alloyed with copper and palladium. Less
commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold
compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides).
Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does
dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of nitric
acid and hydrochloric acid, which forms a
soluble tetrachloroaurate anion. Gold is insoluble
in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base
metals, a property that has long been used
to refine gold and to confirm the presence of gold
in metallic objects, giving rise to the term acid test.
Gold also dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide,
which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold
dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but
this is not a chemical reaction.
Copper is a chemical element with
the symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) and atomic
number 29. It is a soft, malleable,
and ductile metal with very
high thermal and electrical conductivity. A
freshly exposed surface of pure copper has
a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a
conductor of heat and electricity, as a building
material, and as a constituent of various
metal alloys, such as sterling silver used
in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine
hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain
gauges and thermocouples for temperature
measurement.
Copper is one of the few metals that can occur in
nature in a directly usable metallic form (native
metals). This led to very early human use in
several regions, from c. 8000 BC. Thousands of
years later, it was the first metal to
be smelted from sulfide ores, c. 5000 BC, the first
metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c. 4000
BC and the first metal to be purposefully alloyed
with another metal, tin, to create bronze, c. 3500
BC.
Iron (/ˈaɪərn/) is a chemical
element with symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum)
and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to
the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic
table. It is by mass the most common element
on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner
core. It is the fourth most common element in the
Earth's crust.
In its metallic state, iron is rare in the Earth's crust,
limited to deposition by meteorites. Iron ores, by
contrast, are among the most abundant in the
Earth's crust, although extracting usable metal from
them requires kilns or furnaces capable of reaching
1500 °C or higher, about 500 °C higher than what
is enough to smelt copper. Humans started to
master that process in Eurasia only about 2000
BCE and the use of iron tools and weapons began
to displace copper alloys, in some regions, only
around 1200 BCE. That event is considered the
transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. In
the modern world, iron alloys, such
as steel, inox, cast iron and special steels are by far
the most common industrial metals, because of
their high mechanical properties and low cost.
Lead (/ˈlɛd/) is a chemical element with
the symbol Pb (from the Latin plumbum)
and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that
is denser than most common materials. Lead
is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively
low melting point. When freshly cut, lead is
silvery with a hint of blue; it tarnishes to a dull
gray color when exposed to air. Lead has the
highest atomic number of any stable element and
three of its isotopes are endpoints of major
nuclear decay chains of heavier elements.
Lead is a relatively unreactive post-transition
metal. Its weak metallic character is illustrated by
its amphoteric nature; lead and lead oxides react
with acids and bases, and it tends to
form covalent bonds. Compounds of lead are
usually found in the +2 oxidation state rather than
the +4 state common with lighter members of
the carbon group. Exceptions are mostly limited
to organolead compounds. Like the lighter
members of the group, lead tends to bond with
itself; it can form chains and polyhedral
structures.
Chromium is a chemical element with
the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first
element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous,
hard and brittle transition metal. Chromium is the
main additive in stainless steel, to which it adds
anti-corrosive properties. Chromium is also highly
valued as a metal that is able to be
highly polished while resisting tarnishing. Polished
chromium reflects almost 70% of the visible
spectrum, with almost 90% of infrared light being
reflected. The name of the element is derived from
the Greek word χρῶμα, chrōma,
meaning color, because many chromium
compounds are intensely colored.
Ferrochromium alloy is commercially produced
from chromite by silicothermic or aluminothermic
reactions and chromium metal
by roasting and leaching processes followed by
reduction with carbon and then aluminium.
Chromium metal is of high value for its
high corrosion resistance and hardness. A major
development in steel production was the discovery
that steel could be made highly resistant to
corrosion and discoloration by adding metallic
chromium to form stainless steel. Stainless steel
and chrome plating (electroplating with chromium)
together comprise 85% of the commercial use.
Manganese is a chemical element with
the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is not
found as a free element in nature; it is often found
in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese
is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of
industrial alloy uses, particularly in stainless
steels.
Historically, manganese is named
for pyrolusite and other black minerals from the
region of Magnesia in Greece, which also gave its
name to magnesium and the iron ore magnetite.
By the mid-18th century, Swedish-
German chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele had used
pyrolusite to produce chlorine. Scheele and others
were aware that pyrolusite (now known to
be manganese dioxide) contained a new element,
but they were unable to isolate it. Johan Gottlieb
Gahn was the first to isolate an impure sample of
manganese metal in 1774, which he did
by reducing the dioxide with carbon.
Platinum is a chemical element with
the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is
a dense, malleable, ductile, highly
unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition
metal. Its name is derived from the Spanish
term platino, meaning "little silver".
Platinum is a member of the platinum group of
elements and group 10 of the periodic table of
elements. It has six naturally occurring isotopes. It
is one of the rarer elements in Earth's crust, with an
average abundance of approximately 5 μg/kg. It
occurs in some nickel and copper ores along with
some native deposits, mostly in South Africa,
which accounts for 80% of the world production.
Because of its scarcity in Earth's crust, only a few
hundred tonnes are produced annually, and given
its important uses, it is highly valuable and is a
major precious metal commodity.
Platinum is one of the least reactive metals. It has
remarkable resistance to corrosion, even at high
temperatures, and is therefore considered a noble
metal. Consequently, platinum is often found
chemically uncombined as native platinum.
Because it occurs naturally in the alluvial sands of
various rivers, it was first used by pre-
Columbian South American natives to produce
artifacts. It was referenced in European writings as
early as 16th century, but it was not until Antonio
de Ulloa published a report on a new metal
of Colombian origin in 1748 that it began to be
investigated by scientists.
Silver is a chemical element with
the symbol Ag (from the Latin argentum, derived
from the Proto-Indo-European h₂erǵ: "shiny" or
"white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white,
lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the
highest electrical conductivity, thermal
conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The
metal is found in the Earth's crust in the pure, free
elemental form ("native silver"), as
an alloy with gold and other metals, and in
minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most
silver is produced as a byproduct of copper,
gold, lead, and zinc refining.
Silver has long been valued as a precious metal.
Silver metal is used in many bullion coins,
sometimes alongside gold: while it is more
abundant than gold, it is much less abundant as
a native metal. Its purity is typically measured on
a per-mille basis; a 94%-pure alloy is described as
"0.940 fine". As one of the seven metals of
antiquity, silver has had an enduring role in most
human cultures.
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian
English) is a chemical element with
the symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a
silvery-white, soft, non-
magnetic and ductile metal in the boron group. By
mass, aluminium makes up about 8% of the Earth's
crust, where it is the third most abundant element
(after oxygen and silicon) and also the most
abundant metal. Occurrence of aluminium
decreases in the Earth's mantle below, however.
The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite. Aluminium
metal is highly reactive, such that native
specimens are rare and limited to
extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is found
combined in over 270 different minerals.
Aluminium is remarkable for its low density and its
ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon
of passivation. Aluminium and its alloys are vital to
the aerospace industry and important
in transportation and building industries, such as
building facades and window
frames. The oxides and sulfates are the most useful
compounds of aluminium.
Despite its prevalence in the environment, no
known form of life uses
aluminium salts metabolically, but aluminium is
well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of
these salts' abundance, the potential for a biological
role for them is of continuing interest, and studies
continue.