Uses of Zircon
The mineral zircon forms when zirconium, silicon and oxygen bond into a crystal matrix. Zircon crystals also trap small amounts of hafnium, uranium and thorium and serve as the principal source for hafnium metal. Zircon crystals can take almost any color and are often used as semiprecious gems. Ground into fine sands, zircon also has industrial uses in the manufacture of ceramics, glass, metals and chemicals. The mineral also proves invaluable to geologists who assign ages to scientific samples.
Jewelry
The famed cubic zirconium is a manufactured zircon. The natural mineral can also be cut, polished and set as a gemstone. According to the Zircon Minerals Council, roughly 12 percent of mined zircon becomes jewelry, although some of the crystals have to be heated to destroy the trace radioactive elements they contain.
Ceramics
Most zircon gets ground by processors into sands of varying grain size. Ceramics manufacturers make the most overall use of zircon, employing the finest zircon sands to give their products high strength and high resistance to heat. Zircon ceramics often serve as protective coatings on metals. Additionally, powdered zircon in ceramic glazes gives them an opaqueness that allows colors to stay fixed in varying light.
Refractories
As defined by the Refractories Institute, "refractories are heat-resistant materials that constitute the linings for high-temperature furnaces and reactors and other processing units." Many of the linings of smelters, chemical vats and heat containment units in power plants employ zircon sands as an essential component.
Industrial Abrasives
Coarser zircon sands see use as polishing agents at metal foundries and glass works. Zircon sands also serve as the ammunition for some sandblasting machines used to strip paint and mold from buildings.
Glass Screens
As with ceramic glazes, adding zircon to glass makes it semi-opaque. Glass mixed with zircon sands often gets used for television screens.
Welding
Some welding rods carry a zircon coating. The mineral protects applied solder from being displaced by subsequent heating.
Radiographic Dating
The trace amounts of uranium and thorium trapped in the crystal lattice of zircon make the mineral useful to geologists who want to determine the age of soils and rocks. By calculating the amount of atomic decay of the radiological elements in a given sample of zircon from a known location or formation, scientists can approximate the age the location or formation to within a few thousand years. Zircon-reference dating has been used to determine the age of the moon's surface and the time at which water formed on Earth.
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