Zirconium- Zirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number of 40. It belongs to group IV of the periodic table, which also includes Ti and Hf. Zirconium is a very strong, malleable, ductile, lustrous silver-gray metal with a melting point of 1852.0°C. Its properties resembles those of hafnium, and to a lesser extent, titanium. It has one main oxidation state (+4).90Zr is the most abundant at 51.5% of the total mass. The estimated crustal abundance of zirconium is 1.65×102 milligrams per kilogram. Zirconium is highly transparent to neutrons. It is therefore useful in nuclear energy applications. When it is finely divided into a powder, zirconium can spontaneously ignite in air, especially at high temperatures. (It is much more difficult to ignite the solid metal.) Zircon is the most important source of zirconium, and is also the name origin of the element’s name. Nowadays, leading producers of zirconium include Australia, South Africa, and Indonesia.
The main use of zirconium is in the form of zircon (ZrSiO4) for the refractory industry, foundry sands, and ceramic opacification.
- Zirconium: element discovery
- The element zirconium is named after the mineral in which it was discovered, zircon. German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered the element zirconium in 1789. He made the discovery while studying a sample of zircon from Ceylon. Although many chemists of the time thought it was a form of alumina, Klaproth suspected that the mineral contained a new element...
- Zirconium: resources, reserves and production
- World resources of zirconium are associated with those of zircon and baddeleyite, though there are still another 30 recognized mineral types which contain zirconium to a greater or lesser extent. The dominant economic source of zirconium is the zirconium silicate mineral, zircon (ZrSiO4)...
- Zirconium: uses
- The main use of zirconium is in the form of zircon (ZrSiO4) for the refractory industry, foundry sands, and ceramic opacification. Zircon is also marketed as a gemstone used in jewelry...
- Contents
- References
- 1. Zr.pdf
- 2. Zirconium (Zr) - Chemical properties, Health and Environmental effects
- 3. What Is Zirconium? (with picture)
- 4. Zirconium mine responds to submissions - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- 5. U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, ZIRCONIUM AND HAFNIUM
- 6. 2012 Minerals Yearbook Zirconium and Hafnium [advance release] U.S. Geological Survey