Zirconium dioxide of Mars to provide both fuel and oxidizer that could be used as a store of chemical energy for use with surface transportation on Mars. Carbon monoxide/oxygen engines have been suggested for early surface transportation use as both carbon monoxide and oxygen can be straightforwardly produced by zirconia electrolysis without requiring use of any of the Martian water resources to obtain hydrogen, which would be needed for the production of methane or any hydrogen-based fuels. Zirconia is also a potential high-k dielectric material with potential applications as an insulator in transistors. Zirconia is also employed in the deposition of optical
Zirconium nitride Zirconium nitride Zirconium nitride () is an inorganic compound used in a variety of ways due to its properties. ZrN grown by physical vapor deposition (PVD) is a light gold color similar to elemental gold. ZrN has a room-temperature electrical resistivity of 12.0 µΩ·cm, a temperature coefficient of resistivity of 5.6·10 Ω·cm/K, a superconducting transition temperature of 10.4 K, and a relaxed lattice parameter of 0.4575 nm. The hardness of single-crystal ZrN is 22.7±1.7 GPa and elastic modulus is 450 GPa. Zirconium nitride is a hard ceramic material similar to titanium nitride and is a cement-like refractory material. Thus it