Zirconium dioxide coating on particles of titanium dioxide pigments, as a refractory material, in insulation, abrasives and enamels. Stabilized zirconia is used in oxygen sensors and fuel cell membranes because it has the ability to allow oxygen ions to move freely through the crystal structure at high temperatures. This high ionic conductivity (and a low electronic conductivity) makes it one of the most useful electroceramics. Zirconium dioxide is also used as the solid electrolyte in electrochromic devices. Zirconia is a precursor to the electroceramic lead zirconate titanate ("PZT"), which is a high-K dielectric, which is found in myriad components. The very low
Zirconium and potassium zirconium fluoride in an iron tube. The "crystal bar process" (also known as the "Iodide Process"), discovered by Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer in 1925, was the first industrial process for the commercial production of metallic zirconium. It involves the formation and subsequent thermal decomposition of zirconium tetraiodide, and was superseded in 1945 by the much cheaper Kroll process developed by William Justin Kroll, in which zirconium tetrachloride is reduced by magnesium: Approximately 900,000 tonnes of zirconium ores were mined in 1995, mostly as zircon. Most zircon is used directly in high-temperature applications. This