Cobalt

Element Cobalt

Cobalt atom is a cobalt group element atom that has atomic number 27. It has a role as a micronutrient. It is a cobalt group element atom and a metal allergen.
Like nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth’s crust only in chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron.
The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal.
Cobalt is a naturally occurring element found in rocks, soil, water, plants, and animals.
Cobalt is used to produce alloys used in the manufacture of aircraft engines, magnets, grinding and cutting tools, artificial hip and knee joints. Cobalt compounds are also used to color glass, ceramics and paints, and used as a drier for porcelain enamel and paints.

Naturally occurring cobalt consists of a single stable isotope: 59Co. Cobalt-59 has spin 7/2.
The usual NMR reference is K3[Co(CN)6] in D2O. Cobalt-60 is an artifical isotope, and is an important γ-ray source.