Zirconium Totally Explained

Everything about Zirconium totally explained

Zirconium (/ˌzɝˈkoʊniəm/) is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. It is a lustrous, gray-white, strong transition metal that resembles titanium. Zirconium is used as an alloying agent due to its high resistance to corrosion. It is never found as a native metal, but is instead obtained mainly from the mineral zircon, which can be purified by chlorine. Zirconium was first isolated in an impure form in 1824 by Berzelius.
Zirconium has no known biological role. Zirconium forms both inorganic and organic compounds, such as zirconium dioxide and zirconocene dibromide, respectively. There are five naturally-occurring isotopes, three of which are stable. Short-term exposure to zirconium powder causes minor irritation, and inhalation of zirconium compounds can cause skin and lung granulomas.

Characteristics

Zirconium is a lustrous, grayish-white, soft, ductile, and malleable metal which is solid at room temperature, though it becomes hard and brittle at lower purities. However, it'll dissolve in hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, especially when fluorine is present. Alloys with zinc become magnetic below 35 K. Zirconium has an electronegativity of 1.33 on the Pauling scale. Of the elements within d-block, Zirconium has the fourth lowest electronegativity after yttrium, lutetium, and hafnium.

Applications

Because of Zirconium's excellent resistance to corrosion, it's often used as an alloying agent in materials that are exposed to corrosive agents, such as surgical appliances, explosive primers, vacuum tube getters and filaments. Zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂) is used in laboratory crucibles, metallurgical furnaces, and as a refractory material. 90% of all zirconium produced is used in nuclear reactors because of its low neutron-capture cross-section and resistance to corrosion. Zirconium alloys are used in space vehicle parts for their resistance to heat, an important quality given the extreme heat associated with atmospheric reentry. Zirconium is also a component in some abrasives, such as grinding wheels and sandpaper.

Refining

Upon being collected from coastal waters, the solid mineral zircon is purified by spiral concentrators to remove excess sand and gravel and by magnetic separators to remove ilmenite and rutile. The byproducts can then be dumped back into the water safely, as they're all natural components of beach sand. The refined zircon is then purified into pure zirconium by chlorine or other agents, then sintered until sufficiently ductile for metalworking. Arabic zarkûn from Persian zargûn زرگون meaning "gold like")

Occurrence

Geological

Zirconium has a concentration of about 130 mg/kg within the earth's crust and about .026 μg/L in sea water, and annual worldwide zirconium production is approximately 900,000 metric tons.
Zircon is a by-product of the mining and processing of the titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile, as well as tin mining. From 2003 to 2007, zircon prices have steadily increased from $360 to $840 per metric ton. This metal is commercially produced mostly by the reduction of the zirconium(IV) chloride with magnesium metal in the Kroll process. These properties make zirconia useful as a thermal barrier coating, though it's also a common diamond substitute. Other inorganic zirconium compounds include zirconium (II) hydride, zirconium nitride, and zirconium tetrachloride (ZrCl₄), which is used in the Friedel-Crafts reaction. Organozirconium chemistry is the study of compounds containing a carbon-zirconium bond. These organozirconium compounds are often employed as polymerization catalysts. The first such compound was zirconocene dibromide, prepared in 1952 by John M. Birmingham at Harvard University. Schwartz's reagent, prepared in 1970 by P. C. Wailes and H. Weigold, is a metallocene used in organic synthesis for transformations of alkenes and alkynes.

Isotopes

Naturally-occurring zirconium is composed of five isotopes. ⁹⁰Zr, ⁹¹Zr, and ⁹²Zr are stable. ⁹⁴Zr has a half-life of 1.10 × 10¹⁷ years. ⁹⁶Zr has half-life of 2.4 × 10¹⁹ years, making it the longest-lived radioisotope of zirconium. Of these natural isotopes, ⁹⁰Zr is the most common, making up 51.45% of all zirconium. ⁹⁶Zr is the least common, comprising only 2.80% of zirconium.
28 artificial isotopes of zirconium have been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 78 to 110. ⁹³Zr is the longest-lived artificial isotope, with a half-life of 1.53 × 10⁶ years. ¹¹⁰Zr, the heaviest isotope of Zirconium, is also the shortest-lived, with an estimated half-life of only 30 milliseconds. Radioactive isotopes at or above mass number 93 decay by β^-, whereas those at or below 89 decay by β⁺. The only exception is ⁸⁸Zr, which decays by ε. Inhalation of zirconium compounds can cause skin and lung granulomas. Zirconium aerosols can cause pulmonary granulomas. Persistent exposure to zirconium tetrachloride resulted in increased mortality in rats and guinea pigs and a decrease of blood hemoglobin and red blood cells in dogs. OSHA recommends a 5 mg/m³ time weighted average limit and a 10 mg/m³ short-term exposure limit.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Zirconium'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://zirconium.totallyexplained.com">Zirconium Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.