Zirconium Facts
Zirconium Facts
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| Interesting Zirconium Facts: |
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| Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered zirconium in Berlin in 1789. |
| The name zirconium comes from the Arabic work for "gold color," which is zargun. |
| This gold-colored gemstone was one of the compounds of zirconium, ZrSiO4. |
| Several zirconium-rich minerals, including jargon and hyacinth, have been in use since biblical times and are mentioned in the Bible. |
| In 1914, pure zirconium was produced by Jon Jacob Berzlius. |
| The Kroll method is used to isolate zirconium from a variety of mineral sources. |
| Typically, magnesium is removed and leaves a sample of zirconium which is refined by heating. |
| Zirconium is a transition metal with a greyish white color. |
| There are five naturally occurring isotopes of zirconium. |
| Only three of those five isotopes are stable. |
| The fourth semi-stable isotope, Zr-94, has such a high half-life (100 quintillion years) that is considered stable. |
| Powdered zirconium is incredibly flammable. |
| However, it has a melting point of 1855 degrees Celsius, or 3371 degrees Fahrenheit. |
| Below a certain temperature, alloys of zirconium with zinc become magnetic. |
| There are twenty-eight synthetic zirconium isotopes. |
| Because of the way that zirconium reacts with water, it is not found in nature in its metallic form. |
| The most abundant sources of usable zirconium are Australia and South Africa. |
| The global mining industry extracts and refines about 900,000 tons of zirconium each year. |
| It is found in over 140 minerals. |
| Zirconium is believed to be present in the Sun and in many meteorites. |
| Moon rock samples retrieved by NASA's Apollo missions found zirconium to be present in lunar rock. |
| Zirconium is often produced as a derivative of titanium mining. |
| Zircon-rich sand is another source of the material for industry. |
| Zirconium is not believed to play a part in living organisms. |
| Currently, it is being tested in a new type of cancer detecting PET scans. |
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