Zirconium is a gemstone element, and zirconium can be used as a fine ornament as well as a ceramic material. Zirconium compounds are also widely used in color picture tubes, emulsified glass, refractory materials, and spray paint. Zirconium monomers can be used as absorbents or even hydrogen storage materials, and zirconium alloys can be used in the nuclear industry.

Basic Physical Properties of Zirconium

Discovery of Zirconium

The natural silicate of zirconium, ZrSiO4, known as zircon or hyacinth, is widely distributed in nature, and has a wide range of beautiful colors from orange to red, and has been considered a gemstone since ancient times. The word zircon is said to be derived from the Arabic word Zarqūn, which means vermilion, and from the Persian word Zargun, which means gold, and hyacinth from the Greek word for lily. It is also said to come from the Persian word Zargun, which is gold, and hyacinth, which comes from the Greek word for “lily”. Zircon comes in a variety of colors, with red, brown, green and yellow being the most common, and colorless zircon being more common amongst humans, and colorless zircon being cut to give it an eye-catching luster. It is for this reason that zircon was for a long time mistaken for a soft diamond. Zircon is also mentioned in the Bible as one of the 12 precious stones worn by the high priests of Israel. The naming of zirconium is based on zirconium, the element's Latin name is Zirconium and its symbol is Zr.

When the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth studied zircon in 1789, he found that if it was co-melted with sodium hydroxide and the cooler was dissolved in hydrochloric acid, potassium carbonate was added to the solution obtained, the precipitate was precipitated, filtered and washed of the precipitate, which was then co-cooked with sulphuric acid, and then filtered to remove the oxides of silica, and then examined for calcium, magnesium, and aluminium oxides in the filtrate, none of them were None of them existed. After adding potassium carbonate to the filtrate, a precipitate appeared, which was not as soluble in alkali as alumina, nor did it act with acids as magnesium oxide, and Klaproth concluded that this precipitate was different from all previously known oxides, and that there was a new element in it. He named the new oxide zirconium oxide, and the new element zirconium (Zirkonerde, zirconium earth, German). Soon after, both French chemists de Morueau and Vauquelin confirmed that Martin Heinrich Klaproth's analysis was correct.

Klaproth was unable to extract pure zirconium at the time because of its chemical similarity to hafnium, which is often found with zirconium in zirconium ores. 1808, H. Davy in England unsuccessfully decomposed zirconium compounds using an electric current, and in 1824, the Swedish chemist J.J. Berzelius produced pure zirconium for the first time. At that time, there were several other chemists also committed to this work, but were unsuccessful. J.J. Berzelius through the potassium and K2ZrF6 mixture placed in an iron pipe for heating successfully extracted pure zirconium (reaction formula: K2ZrF6 + 4K = Zr + 6KF, the reaction can also be used as a reducing agent Na). The black powder zirconium purity of 93%, J.J. Berzelius purification of zirconium has not been able to improve the purity of zirconium until nearly 100 years later, high purity zirconium was produced. 1914, the Netherlands, a metal white-hot lamp manufacturer of the two researchers Lely and Ham bruger with anhydrous zirconium tetrachloride and an excess of sodium metal in the same into an empty ball, the use of electric current heating at 500 ℃ to achieve the same result, the zirconium was extracted with anhydrous zirconium tetrachloride and excess sodium metal. Pure metallic zirconium was obtained by heating an empty sphere with an electric current at 500 °C. Completely pure zirconium was only produced in 1925 by the Dutch chemists Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer by decomposing zirconium tetraiodide (ZrI4). Today, most zirconium is extracted from zircon (ZrSiO4) and zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) in a process known as the “Kroll Process”.zirconium metal

zirconium metal

Absorbents

Zirconium is a metal similar in appearance to steel, which absorbs hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen as strongly as lithium and titanium. Zirconium has a strong affinity for oxygen, 1000 ° C oxygen dissolved in zirconium can make its volume increased significantly, its surface is easy to form a layer of oxide film, with a gloss. Zirconium can also be used as a hydrogen storage material, in two hundred degrees Celsius conditions, one hundred grams of zirconium metal can absorb eight hundred and seventeen liters of hydrogen, equivalent to more than eight hundred thousand times the iron. When the temperature exceeds nine hundred degrees Celsius, zirconium can violently absorb nitrogen. Zirconium of this gas absorption properties have been widely used, such as in the electric vacuum industry, people widely use zirconium powder coated in the electric vacuum components and instrumentation of the anode and other heated parts of the surface, absorption of residual gases in the vacuum tube, made of a high degree of vacuum tubes and other electric vacuum instrumentation, so as to improve the quality of their use, to extend their use of time.

                                                   Aspirated metal - zirconium

Zircon (Zirconium Silicate) and Zirconia

Zircon, also known as zirconia, is a chemically stable, acid-resistant, high-temperature-resistant stone with a melting point of 2750°C. 80% of zircon is used directly in the foundry, ceramics and glass industries and in the manufacture of refractory materials. A small amount of zircon is used in ferroalloys, pharmaceuticals, paints, tanning, abrasives, chemicals and the nuclear industry. A very small amount of zircon is used in the smelting of zirconium metal. Zircon is widely used in the production of various building ceramics, sanitary ceramics, daily-use ceramics, first-class handicraft ceramics, etc. In the processing and production of ceramic glaze, it is widely used and applied. Zirconium silicate is widely used in ceramic production, but also because of its chemical stability, and therefore not affected by the ceramic firing atmosphere, and can significantly improve the ceramic billet glaze bonding properties, improve the hardness of ceramic glaze. In addition, zirconium silicate is also widely used in color picture tubes in the television industry, emulsified glass in the glass industry, refractory materials and spray coatings.

Zirconia and dolomite react together at high temperature to form zirconium dioxide or zirconium oxygen (ZrO2). Zirconium oxygen is also a high quality fusible material, although its crystalline shape varies with temperature. Stabilized zirconium oxygen also contains small amounts of magnesium, calcium, scandium or yttrium oxides. The melting point of stabilized zirconium oxygen is close to 2700°C. Stabilized zirconium oxygen has a low thermal conductivity, which allows it to be used as a refractory material in industry. Pure zirconium oxide is a high-grade refractory raw materials, its melting temperature is about 2900 ° C. It can improve the high-temperature viscosity of the glaze and expand the viscosity of the temperature range of change, has a better thermal stability, its content of 2% -3%, can improve the glaze of the anti-cracking properties. Also because of its chemical inertia, it can improve the chemical stability of the glaze and acid and alkali resistance, but also can play the role of emulsifier. In the building ceramic glaze in the use of zircon, the general dosage of 8% -12%. Zirconia is the main raw material of “underglaze white”, zirconia is a good color aid for yellow-green pigment, if you want to get a better vanadium-zirconium yellow pigment, you have to choose pure zirconia.

Zircon sand containing ZrO265～66% is directly used as casting material of iron metal in foundry because of its melting resistance (melting point above 2500℃). Zircon sand has low thermal expansion, high thermal conductivity, and other common melt-resistant materials have a strong chemical stability, so high-quality zircon and a variety of other adhesives together with good adhesion and used in foundry industry. Zircon sand is also used as bricks in glass kilns. Zircon sand and zircon powder are mixed with other fusible materials for other purposes.

                                                     Colorful zircon left diamond, right zircon

Zirconium and Zirconium Alloys

Zirconium is a rare metal with amazing corrosion resistance, extremely high melting point, ultra-high hardness and strength, etc. It is widely used in aerospace, military, nuclear reaction and atomic energy fields. Zirconium has a small thermal neutron capture cross-section and outstanding nuclear properties, making it an indispensable material for the development of the atomic energy industry, and it can be used as a structural material for reactor cores. China's large nuclear power plants are generally used zirconium, if the nuclear power generation, each million kilowatts of generating capacity, a year to consume 20 to 25 tons of zirconium metal. Because of the low ignition point of zirconium powder and fast combustion speed, so it can be used as detonator detonator charge, this advanced detonator can even be exploded underwater. Zirconium powder plus oxidizer is like adding oil to the fire, burning up the glare, is the manufacture of tracer bullets and flares of good materials. Powdered iron mixed with zirconium nitrate, can be used as flash powder.

Zirconium can also be used as metallurgical industry “vitamins”, to play its powerful deoxidation, nitrogen removal, the role of sulfur. Steel as long as the addition of one-thousandth of zirconium, hardness and strength will be amazingly increased; zirconium-containing armored steel, stainless steel and heat-resistant steel, etc., is the manufacture of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and bullet-proof panels and other important materials for national defense weapons. Zirconium doped into copper, pumped into copper wire, the conductive ability is not weakened, while the melting point is greatly improved, with high-voltage wires is very suitable. Zirconium-containing zinc-magnesium alloy, light and high-temperature resistant, twice the strength of ordinary magnesium alloy, available to the manufacture of jet engine components. In addition, zirconium is also an important alloying element of magnesium alloy, can improve the tensile strength and processing performance of magnesium alloy. Zirconium is also a metamorphic agent for aluminum-magnesium alloys, which can refine the grain size.

Zirconium alloy to zirconium as a substrate to add other elements and the composition of non-ferrous alloys. The main alloying elements are tin, niobium, iron and so on. Zirconium alloy in 300 ~ 400 ℃ high temperature and high pressure water and steam have good corrosion resistance, moderate mechanical properties, low atomic thermal neutron absorption cross-section, the nuclear fuel has good compatibility, more used as a water-cooled nuclear reactor core structure materials. In addition, zirconium has excellent corrosion resistance to a variety of acids, alkalis and salts, and oxygen, nitrogen and other gases have a strong affinity, so zirconium alloys are also used in the manufacture of corrosion-resistant parts and components of pharmaceutical machinery, in the electric vacuum and light bulb industry is widely used as a non-dissipative degassing agent. Industrial-scale production of zirconium alloys are zirconium tin system and zirconium niobium system two types. The former alloy grades are Zr-2, Zr-4, and the latter is typically represented by Zr-2.5Nb. In zirconium-tin alloys, the alloying elements tin, iron, chromium, and nickel improve the strength, corrosion resistance, and thermal conductivity of the corrosion-resistant film, and reduce the sensitivity of the surface state to corrosion. Usually Zr-2 alloys are used in boiling water reactors and Zr-4 alloys are used in pressurized water reactors. In zirconium-niobium alloys, the best corrosion resistance is achieved when niobium is added up to the solid solution limit of the zirconium crystal structure at the service temperature. Zirconium alloys have a homogeneous-heterocrystalline transition, with a body-centered cubic crystal structure at high temperatures and a densely arranged hexagonal one at low temperatures. Zirconium alloys have good plasticity and can be made into tubes, plates, rods and wires through plastic processing; their weldability is also good and can be used for welding.Its weldability is also good, so it can be used for welding processing.

                                  Zirconium alloys                                                                                         Zirconium alloys