Period 4 element be dangerous in large enough quantities due to its radioactivity. Nickel (Ni) is an element in period 4, between cobalt and copper. Nickel is rare in the Earth's crust, mainly due to the fact that it reacts with oxygen in the air, with most of the nickel on Earth coming from nickel iron meteorites. However, nickel is incredibly common in the Earth's core; along with iron it is one of the two main components. Nickel is an important component of stainless steel, and in many superalloys. Copper (Cu) is an element in period 4, between nickel and zinc. Copper is
Chemical element by symbol, as well as ionization energies of the elements. The nuclides of stable and radioactive elements are also available as a list of nuclides, sorted by length of half-life for those that are unstable. One of the most convenient, and certainly the most traditional presentation of the elements, is in the form of the periodic table, which groups together elements with similar chemical properties (and usually also similar electronic structures). The atomic number of an element is equal to the number of protons in each atom, and defines the element. For example, all carbon atoms contain 6 protons in