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(III) chloride Zirconium(III) chloride Zirconium(III) chloride is an inorganic compound with formula ZrCl. It is a blue-black solid that is highly sensitive to air. The material was first claimed by Ruff and Wallstein who reduced zirconium tetrachloride with aluminium to give impure samples. Subsequently, the problem with aluminium contamination was solved when it was prepared by reduction using zirconium metal: When aluminium is used as the reducing agent with zirconium tetrachloride, a series of choloroaluminates are formed, for example [Zr(AlCl)(AlCl)] and Zr(AlCl). Since the trihalides, such as zirconium trichloride, are comparatively nonvolatile, contamination can be avoided by using a gaseous reductant. For