Nickel Flakes is produced through a reduction process where nickel oxide or nickel salts are reduced to a pure nickel form. There are a few common production methods used:
The Nickel Powder Process is one of the earliest and most widely used processes for producing Nickel Flakes. In this process, nickel oxides or nickel salts are subjected to reduction in a solid-state reaction using carbon or carbon monoxide as a reducing agent. The process takes place at high temperatures between 1000 to 1200 °C in a rotary or fluidized bed furnace. This process produces Nickel Flakess in the 10 to 100 micron size range.
The MONN process is another widely used industrial process that takes place completely in the gaseous phase. In this process, nickel oxides or salts are reacted with hydrogen gas as the reducing agent in a fluidized bed reactor operating between 900 to 1000 °C. This process produces Nickel Flakess in the submicron to 10 micron size range with a spherical morphology.
Electrolytic deposition is also used to produce Nickel Flakes where nickel salts are subjected to an electrolytic reduction process using direct current. Finely divided Nickel Flakes deposits on the cathode in this process. Electrolytic Nickel Flakess typically have particle sizes less than 5 microns.
Properties and Characteristics of Nickel Powder
Nickel Flakes has the following key physical and chemical properties:
- Color: Nickel Flakes has a silvery-white metallic color.
- Particle Size: Commercial Nickel Flakess are available in a range of particle sizes from submicron to 100+ microns depending on the production process.
- Purity: Nickel Flakes can be produced with purity levels over 99.5% pure nickel. Trace amounts of carbon, oxygen, sulfur and other elements may be present depending on the production route.
- Morphology: Nickel Flakess produced by different methods have distinctive morphologies - spherical for MONN process powders, plate/flaky for electrolytic powders and irregular shapes for Caron process powders.
- Density: The theoretical density of nickel is 8.908 g/cm3. However, densities of Nickel Flakess vary and decrease with decreasing particle size due to porosity effects.
- Melting Point: The melting point of nickel is 1453 °C, which is suitable for high-temperature applications.
- Magnetic Properties: Nickel is ferromagnetic and exhibits excellent magnetic properties even as a fine powder.
Common Applications of Nickel Powder
Due to its versatile properties, Nickel Flakes finds wide use in many applications across different industries:
- Batteries: Nickel Flakes is used as an active cathode material for rechargeable nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) and nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries.
- Catalysis: Finely divided Nickel Flakess acts as an effective catalyst for industrial chemical reactions like hydrogenation and carbonylation due to its high surface area.
- 3D Printing: Nickel Flakess are gaining popularity as a feedstock material for binder jetting and other metal 3D printing processes since nickel parts exhibit high strength and corrosion resistance.
- Powder Metallurgy: Nickel Flakess are commonly used as a base material to produce sintered metal parts through powder metallurgy techniques like metal injection molding. This industry utilizes over 50% of total Nickel Flakes production.
- Electronics: Nickel platings and conductive pastes made using Nickel Flakes find wide use in electronic components for their resilience to corrosion and good electrical conductivity.
- Coins: Most circulating coins are made from nickel-copper or nickel-brass alloys containing Nickel Flakes for its silver color and wear resistance.
the versatility of Nickel Powder properties enables its diverse use across industrial segments from batteries to 3D printing to catalysis.
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