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 arises. Materials fabricated from zirconium metal and ZrO are used in space vehicles where resistance to heat is needed. High temperature parts such as combustors, blades, and vanes in jet engines and stationary gas turbines are increasingly being protected by thin ceramic layers, usually composed of a mixture of zirconia and yttria. The isotope Zr has been applied to the tracking and quantification of molecular antibodies with positron emission tomography (PET) cameras (a method called "immuno-PET"). Immuno-PET has reached a maturity of technical development and is now entering the phase of wide-scale clinical applications. Until recently, radiolabeling with Zr was