Getter
Zirconium, like lithium and titanium, strongly absorbs gases such as nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. At temperatures above 900 degrees Celsius, zirconium can violently absorb nitrogen, and at 200 degrees Celsius, 100 grams of zirconium metal can absorb 817 liters of hydrogen, which is more than 800,000 times that of iron. This characteristic of zirconium has been widely used, for example, in the electric vacuum industry, people widely use zirconium powder to coat the surface of the anode and other heated parts of the electric vacuum element and instrument, absorb the residual gas in the vacuum tube, and make highly vacuum electron tubes and other electric vacuum instruments, so as to improve their quality and prolong their service time.
Metallurgical action
Zirconium can also be used as a "vitamin" in the metallurgical industry, playing its powerful role in deoxidation, nitrogen removal and desulfurization. As long as one thousandth of zirconium is added to the steel, the hardness and strength will be amazingly increased, and the armor steel, stainless steel, and heat-resistant steel containing zirconium are important materials for the manufacture of national defense weapons such as armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and bulletproof plates. Zirconium is mixed into copper and pumped into copper wire, the conductivity is not weakened, but the melting point is greatly improved, which is very suitable for high-voltage wires. Zirconium-containing zinc-magnesium alloys, which are light and resistant to high temperatures, are twice as strong as ordinary magnesium alloys, and can be used in the manufacture of jet engine components.
In addition, zirconium powder is characterized by its low ignition point and fast combustion rate, which can be used as an initiating charge for detonators, which can explode even underwater. Zirconium powder plus oxidant. This is like adding fuel to the fire, burning with strong light and dazzling, and it is a good material for making tracer bullets and flares.
Zirconium alloy
Zirconium alloy is a non-ferrous alloy composed of adding other elements to zirconium as a matrix. The main alloying elements are tin, niobium, iron, etc. Zirconium alloy has good corrosion resistance, moderate mechanical properties, low atomic thermal neutron absorption cross section, good compatibility with nuclear fuel, and is mostly used as a core structural material for water-cooled nuclear reactors in high temperature and high pressure water and steam at 300~400 °C. In addition, zirconium has excellent corrosion resistance to a variety of acids, alkalis and salts, and has a strong affinity for oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, so zirconium alloys are also used in the manufacture of corrosion-resistant parts and pharmaceutical machinery parts, and are widely used as non-evapotranspiration degassing agents in the electric vacuum and light bulb industries.
There are two types of zirconium alloys produced on an industrial scale: zirconium-tin and zirconium-niobium. The alloy grades of the former are Zr-2 and Zr-4, and the typical representative of the latter is Zr-2.5Nb. In zirconium-tin alloys, the alloying elements tin, iron, chromium, and nickel can improve the strength, corrosion resistance, and thermal conductivity of the corrosion-resistant film, and reduce the sensitivity of the surface state to corrosion. Usually the Zr-2 alloy is used in boiling water reactors, and the Zr-4 alloy is used in pressurized water reactors. In zirconium-niobium alloys, the corrosion resistance of the alloy is best when the amount of niobium is added to reach the solution limit of the crystal structure of zirconium at the service temperature. Zirconium alloy has homogeneous heterocrystalline transformation, and the crystal structure is body-centered cubic at high temperature and close-packed hexagonal at low temperature. Zirconium alloys have good plasticity and can be made into pipes, plates, bars and wires by plastic processing, and their weldability is also good, which can be used for welding processing.
Zirconium has a small thermal neutron capture cross-section and outstanding nuclear properties, which is an indispensable material for the development of the atomic energy industry and can be used as a structural material for reactor cores. Zirconium powder is flammable in the air and can be used as a detonator and smokeless gunpowder. Zirconium can be used as an additive for deoxidation and desulfurization of high-quality steel, and is also a component of armor steel, cannon steel, stainless steel and heat-resistant steel. Zirconium is an important alloying element in magnesium alloys, which can improve the tensile strength and processing properties of magnesium alloys. Zirconium is also a metamorphic agent for aluminum-magnesium alloys, which can refine grains. Zirconia and zircon are the most valuable compounds in refractories. Zirconia is the main material of new ceramics and cannot be used as a heating material to resist high-temperature oxidation. Zirconia can be used as an additive for acid-resistant enamel and glass, which can significantly improve the elasticity, chemical stability and heat resistance of glass. Zircon has strong light reflection performance and good thermal stability, and can be used as a sunscreen in ceramics and glass. Zirconium can absorb a large amount of oxygen, hydrogen, ammonia and other gases when heated, and is an ideal getter agent, such as zirconium powder as a degassing agent in electron tubes, and zirconium wire zirconium sheets as gate supports, anode supports, etc.
Powdered iron is mixed with zirconium nitrate to make a glitter powder. Zirconium metal is almost exclusively used as a cladding for uranium fuel elements in nuclear reactors. It is also used to make photographic flashes, as well as to resist corrosion in containers and pipes, especially in the case of hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid. Zirconium chemicals can be used as crosslinkers for polymers.
Military use
From the perspective of military industry, as long as one thousandth of zirconium is added to the steel, the hardness and strength will be amazingly improved. Zirconium-containing armor steel, cannon forging steel, stainless steel and heat-resistant steel are important materials for the manufacture of weapons such as armored vehicles, tanks, cannons and bulletproof plates.
From the point of view of atomic energy and nuclear energy, zirconium has outstanding nuclear energy, is an indispensable material for the development of atomic energy industry, China's large nuclear power plants generally use zirconium, if nuclear power is used to generate electricity, every million kilowatts of power generation capacity, 20 to 25 tons of metal zirconium will be consumed a year. A 30,000-horsepower nuclear submarine uses zirconium alloy as a nuclear fuel jacket and pressure tube, and the amount of use can reach 20 to 30 tons.
Zirconium is a rare metal with amazing corrosion resistance, extremely high melting point, ultra-high hardness and strength, and is widely used in aerospace, military industry, nuclear reaction, and atomic energy. The corrosion resistance and high resistance of titanium products used on the "Shen VI" are far less corrosion resistant than zirconium, with a melting point of about 1600 degrees, while the melting point of zirconium is more than 1800 degrees, and the melting point of zirconium dioxide is as high as more than 2700 degrees, so zirconium as an aerospace material, its performance in all aspects is greatly superior to that of titanium.