Zirconium for use in jewelry. Zirconia is a component in some abrasives, such as grinding wheels and sandpaper. A small fraction of the zircon is converted to the metal, which finds various niche applications. Because of zirconium's excellent resistance to corrosion, it is often used as an alloying agent in materials that are exposed to aggressive environments, such as surgical appliances, light filaments, and watch cases. The high reactivity of zirconium with oxygen at high temperatures is exploited in some specialised applications such as explosive primers and as getters in vacuum tubes. The same property is (probably) the purpose of including
Zirconium dioxide is usually the case. A small percentage of the oxides of calcium or yttrium stabilize in the cubic phase. The very rare mineral tazheranite (Zr,Ti,Ca)O is cubic. Unlike TiO, which features six-coordinate Ti in all phases, monoclinic zirconia consists of seven-coordinate zirconium centres. This difference is attributed to the larger size of Zr atom relative to the Ti atom. Zirconia is chemically unreactive. It is slowly attacked by concentrated hydrofluoric acid and sulfuric acid. When heated with carbon, it converts to zirconium carbide. When heated with carbon in the presence of chlorine, it converts to zirconium tetrachloride. This conversion is