The Mond process, sometimes known as the carbonyl process, is a technique created by Ludwig Mond in 1890, to extract and purify nickel. The process was used commercially before the end of the 19th century, and particularly by the International Nickel Company in the Sudbury Basin. This process converts nickel oxides into nickel metal with very high purity being attainable in just a single step. This process involves the fact that carbon monoxide combines with nickel readily and reversibly to give nickel carbonyl. No other element forms a carbonyl compound under the mild conditions used in the process. This process has three steps:

  1. Nickel oxide reacts with syngas at 200 °C to give nickel, together with impurities including iron and cobalt. NiO(s) + H2(g) → Ni(s) + H2O(g)
  2. The impure nickel reacts with carbon monoxide at 50–60 °C to form the gas nickel carbonyl, leaving the impurities as solids. Ni(s) + 4 CO(g) → Ni(CO)4(g)
  3. The mixture of nickel carbonyl and syngas is heated to 220–250 °C, resulting in decomposition back to nickel and carbon monoxide: Ni(CO)4(g) → Ni(s) + 4 CO(g) Steps 2 and 3 illustrate a chemical transport reaction, exploiting the properties that (1) carbon monoxide and nickel readily combine to give a volatile complex and (2) this complex degrades back to nickel and carbon monoxide at higher temperatures. The decomposition may be engineered to produce powder, but more commonly an existing substrate is coated with nickel. For example, nickel pellets are made by dropping small, hot pellets through the carbonyl gas; this deposits a layer of nickel onto the pellets. This process has also been used for plating nickel onto other metals, where a complex shape or sharp corners have made precise results difficult to achieve by electroplating. Although the results are good, the toxicity makes it impractical as an industrial process. Such parts are now plated by electroless nickel plating instead.
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Related concepts (3)
Nickel tetracarbonyl
Nickel carbonyl (IUPAC name: tetracarbonylnickel) is a nickel(0) organometallic compound with the formula Ni(CO)4. This colorless liquid is the principal carbonyl of nickel. It is an intermediate in the Mond process for producing very high-purity nickel and a reagent in organometallic chemistry, although the Mond Process has fallen out of common usage due to the health hazards in working with the compound. Nickel carbonyl is one of the most dangerous substances yet encountered in nickel chemistry due to its very high toxicity, compounded with high volatility and rapid skin absorption.
Iron pentacarbonyl
Iron pentacarbonyl, also known as iron carbonyl, is the compound with formula . Under standard conditions Fe(CO)5 is a free-flowing, straw-colored liquid with a pungent odour. Older samples appear darker. This compound is a common precursor to diverse iron compounds, including many that are useful in small scale organic synthesis. Iron pentacarbonyl is a homoleptic metal carbonyl, where carbon monoxide is the only ligand complexed with a metal. Other examples include octahedral Cr(CO)6 and tetrahedral Ni(CO)4.
Metal carbonyl
Metal carbonyls are coordination complexes of transition metals with carbon monoxide ligands. Metal carbonyls are useful in organic synthesis and as catalysts or catalyst precursors in homogeneous catalysis, such as hydroformylation and Reppe chemistry. In the Mond process, nickel tetracarbonyl is used to produce pure nickel. In organometallic chemistry, metal carbonyls serve as precursors for the preparation of other organometallic complexes.

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