Zirconium perchlorate as cold as possible. Zirconium perchlorate is very hydroscopic forming hydrates, and it is hydrolysed by water to yield zirconyl perchlorate, ZrO(ClO). Zirconium perchlorate reacts with vaseline, methyl nitrate or acetonitrile. Zirconium perchlorate is inert towards carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, and dimethylformamide. Zirconium perchlorate reacts with benzene at 20°C, but at -10°C crystals of Zr(ClO)•CH are deposited. Zirconium perchlorate has solid state transition around 45°C, a melting point between 95.5 and 96.0°C and a decomposition point starting around 120°C. The zirconyl perchlorate formed in the heat decomposition, itself decomposes around 290°C to form zirconia, chlorine and oxygen. In the gas phase
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 It involves the formation and subsequent thermal decomposition of zirconium tetraiodide, and was superseded in 1945 by the much cheaper Kroll process developed by William Justin Kroll, in which zirconium tetrachloride is reduced by magnesium: Approximately 900,000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