Zirconium
Description
A soft white metallic element. Zirconium occurs naturally in the minerals zircon, malacon, baddeleyite, zirkelite, eudialyte, and some rare earth minerals. Its abundance in the earth's crust in 0.023%. Zirconium was discovered by Martin Klaproth in 1789 and first isolated as a metal by Jns Jacob Berzelius in 1824. Because zirconium has good strength and is resistant to heat, corrosion, and nuclear radiation damage, it is widely used in nuclear reactors. It is also used in lamp filaments and flash bulbs. In the ceramic industry, silicate zirconium silicate and oxide zirconium oxide are used as opacifiers and glaze frits.
Synonyms and Related Terms
Zr; zirconio (It.); zircnio (Port.); circonio (Esp.); Zirkonium (Deut., Ned., Sven.); cyrkon (Pol.)
Other Properties
Bluish black powder or soft white metallic flakes.
Reacts with hydrofluoric acid, aqua regia, hot phosphoric acid and fused alkalis. Not attacked by cold sulfuric acid, nitric acid or hydrochloric acid.
| Composition | Zr |
|---|---|
| CAS | 7440-67-7 |
| Mohs Hardness | 5.0 |
| Melting Point | 1853 |
| Density | 6.44 |
| Molecular Weight | atomic wt = 91.224 |
| Refractive Index | 2.2 |
| Boiling Point | 4375 |
Hazards and Safety
Handling may cause irritation.
Fisher Scientific: MSDS
Additional Information
Web Elements: Website
Authority
- Cricket Harbeck, Cricket Harbeck, Adhesives Commonly used in Objects Conservation, unpublished, 1996 Comment: 'Ceramic Pigments' Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 30(7), 1938.
- External source or communication, External source or communication Comment: C. J. Harbeck, 'Ceramic Pigments' Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 30(7), 1938.
- Richard S. Lewis, Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993
- Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976
- The Merck Index, Martha Windholz (ed.), Merck Research Labs, Rahway NJ, 10th edition, 1983 Comment: entry 10306
- Website address 1, Website address 1 Comment: Web Elements at http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Zr/hist.html
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirconium (Accessed Sept. 20, 2005)