The Instrumentation Center

Zirconium

Contributor: Ms. Amstutz class from Clay High School; Herman van Leeuwen from Flexovit; Todd Osborn from Materion; thanks to Rachel Larkin (Flexovit) for sharing her knowledge about the elemental composition of fillers, resin, abrasives, etc.

About the Display:

• Zirconium metal rods – donated by Todd Osborn from Materion; please also see Be
• Earrings – Cubic zirconia (ZrO₂) is often used in  jewelries as a diamond alternative due to its similar refractive index. Cubic zirconia is actually a  metastable state and changes with time to  monoclinic zirconia. Therefore, yttria (yttrium oxide) is added to the cubic zirconia, locking the cubic zirconia structure in place and preventing it from changing into the monoclinic form.

Elemental analysis performed at UToledo’s Instrumentation Center shows the existence of yttrium within the cubic zirconia crystal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kvm4Uu_fuc

• Grinding Wheel and a sample of the abrasive material from https://www.flexovitabrasives.com/.

Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy of  the abrasive material was performed in the UToledo Instrumentation Center. It confirmed to be a mixture of zirconium oxide (Mohs hardness: 6.5) and aluminum oxide (Mohs hardness: 9) with some titanium oxide likely from the “white” alumina grain. The titanium oxide inclusions make it white.

Analyses of the abrasive bonded to the grinding wheel. In addition to Al, Zr, Ti and O, we find iron (Fe) from Fe₂O₃ (Pirox), sodium (Na) and fluorine (F) from Cryolite (Na₃AlF₆ mineral), calcium (Ca) from limestone, potassium (K) can be found as an impurity in one of the grains and silicon (Si) from the fiberglass used to reinforce the wheel. Copper (Cu) is likely an impurity introduced during sample preparation for elemental analysis.

• Zirconia is a newer material for dental crowns. ZrO₂ is stronger than porcelain and some metal alloys and 10 times stronger than natural teeth enamel.
• Scalpel are often zirconium oxide coated steel or even 100% zirconia.

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