Why zirconium is important

Zirconium dioxide ZrO 2 can withstand very high temperatures and is used to make crucibles and to line the walls of high temperature furnaces. Estimated Crustal Abundance : 1. Number of Stable Isotopes : 4 View all isotope data.

Electron Shell Configuration :. Zirconium Previous Isotopes Next. Citation and linking information For questions about this page, please contact Steve Gagnon. Zirconium is not a particularly rare element but because its most common mineral, zircon, is highly resistant to weatering it is only slightly mobile in the environment. Zirconium is more than twice as abundant as copper and zinc and more than 10 times more abundant than lead.

World production is in excess of The estimated reserves exceed a billion tonnes. H ealth effects of zirconium. Zirconium and its salts generally have low systemic toxicity. The estimated dietary intake is about 50 microg.

Most passes through the gut without being adsorbed, and that which is adsorbed tends to accumulate slightly more in the skeleton than in tissue.

Zirconium 95 is one of the radionuclides involved in atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. It is among the long-lived radionuclides that have produced and will continue to produce increased cancers risk for decades and centuries to come.

Back to chart periodic elements. More from 'Elements'. Approximately , patients over the past four decades with zirconia prosthetics have shown no negative responses. Zirconia is also widely used in dental restorations, according to Zirconia Concept , and is typically stabilized with yttria ZrO 2 Y 2 O 3. The yttria-zirconia compound has many benefits over other materials. It is more compatible with the human body and has twice the flexural strength and four times the compression resistance of steel.

It also has greater resistance to acids bases found in many foods. Other new ideas for using zirconium alloys in the medical field include a patent filed in by James Davidson and Lee Tuneberg, American inventors. They describe an alloy containing niobium, titanium, zirconium and molybdenum NbTiZrMo and its benefits for dental and other medical devices.

The zirconium in the alloy gives higher mechanical properties as well as reduces the melting temperature along with titanium , further stabilization, and improved corrosion resistance.

Another patent filed by Shuichi Miyazaki, Heeyoung Kim and Yosuke Sato, Japanese scientists, in describes a zirconium alloy that has super elastic properties that can be used in biological and medical fields. Zirconium is alloyed with titanium, niobium and either tin or aluminum, or both. The alloy is similar to the elasticity of human bones, according to values given by Young's modulus, making it an ideal material for uses inside the human body including artificial bones, joints, and teeth as well as orthodontic wires, stents, bone plates, and other medical implants.

Even though zirconium and other elements in alloys for dental and medical uses are nontoxic, there are still ongoing studies to ensure that the materials themselves don't have adverse side affects over the long term. One such study by a group of scientists in Italy, published in PLOS One in , on a group of obese participants found that there might be a link between zirconium implants and some health problems, such as inflammation and skeletal and connective tissue disorders.

The amount of change in certain biological markers miRNAs was very small and it is believed that they accumulate over time, which can make it difficult to pin point the exact cause. While additional research is needed, the study helped in the understanding the link between the human body and implanted medical devices.