Nickel tetracarbonyl, like a lot of metal carbonyls, is an odd duck. Many complexes of metals and carbon monoxide don't act much like metal at all, and Ni(CO)4 isn't an exception. Nickel carbonyl is a liquid, but only just - it boils at 43C, or just above blood temperature. It's subject to lots of reactions, and just passing CO over impure nickel is a viable method of purifying nickel from a mixture (it will leave as the liquid or gas, depending on the temperature).
Unfortunately, it will give up that CO readily, including, as pointed out here, to certain vital enzymes, such as your hemoglobin and cytochromes. Chances are, you are working with more nickel carbonyl than you have essential enzymes. This often goes poorly.
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Conceptually, its not excessively hard to understand how we develop allergies-- Our bodies generate an inappropriate immune response to a protein that wouldnt otherwise cause us any harm, whether its tree pollen or dust mites or peanut proteins.
The previous entry on cyclohexadiene reminded me of another important piece in some hydrogenations - Raney nickel.
"Every time you look up at the sky, every one of those points of light is a reminder that fusion power is extractable from hydrogen and other light elements, and it is an everyday reality throughout the Milky Way Galaxy." -Carl Sagan
As I endlessly repeat, I'm an experimentalist by training an inclination, so I especially appreciate stories about experimental science.
Will Homeland Severity now be warrantlessly shaking down air travelers for small medallions of Thomas Jefferson and Odor Eaters? Nickel carbonyl was the magic way to thermally plate plutonium pits for fission devices. Electroplate trapped enough water that radiolysis caused gassing then blistering of the conformal metal coating.
Great post, maybe we can have more moleculeoftheday's focusing on metal carbonyls?
Mitch