Zirconium - Periodic Table of Videos

[TehNickIsNoob]

I am sorry but after Vodka glass I started thinking about how good of a present that is... And coming from me, a Russian, is perfect. My next gift to someone shall be shot glasses!

[raudelunas]

of coarse the guy who gave him a vodka glass is russian

[AZURA888]

zirconium, harder than steel and titanium, as hard as cromium but lighter.

[douro20]

That vodka glass is not pure zirconium but an alloy which is most zirconium, called Zircaloy. The material was once made in the thousands of tons in Russia for cladding of nuclear fuel rods. After the end of the Cold War the demand went down, but their was still a good manufacturing base for Zircaloy so they started making household items from the alloy.

[saff3356]

i want that vodka glass :(

[jomnz]

With the situation in Japan, it would be useful to have a more detailed video about this element. To be fair, any element deserves a lot more than just a 1 min video.

[jasonguyperson]

third video in a row he mentions vodka. i like this man.

[TheFuggedaboutit]

I believe Zirconia is used in the dental field as well.

[lolanonamuslol]

not very helpful when writing an essay in 2 days :-(

[Nguli34689]

Powdered Zirconium metal is also used in pyrotechnics.

[ButterflyNM14]

0:03 he's shaking o_O

[TheCaptainLulz]

I have ZrSiO2 but would love some of the metal

[pepsibookcat]

What is with Martyn and all the vodka stuff?!?!? LOLOL

p.s. I do worry about that dear man. I hope he doesn't have Parkinson's. *sigh*

[TSorovanMHael]

@pepsibookcat he probably has some form of exotic heavy metal poisoning..... I think he said something about working with osmium and getting poisoned that way.....

[culwin]

Professor's got the shakes.

Too much coffee!

[Aviatorsmith]

@culwin It's caused by handling too much mercury. It has nothing to do with his caffeine intake.

[ThAwOrLdInFlAmEs]

That is awesome. My defense lacrosse by STX is calle dthe Zirconium andit is made of a Zirconium/Titanium alloy. Very Very ruuged and strong

[BluBreathProductions]

isn't this radioactive?

[Stanilem]

Stable isotopes up to number 83 - and zirconium is only 40 (although of course there are rdioactive isotopes...)

[Drag0nfoxx]

Technetium (43) is radioactive though.

[forglegorktheork]

Apparently not.

[asifyoucare41]

It's a very beautiful metal. I knew he was going to say that! Perhaps there should be a Periodic Videos drinking game. Every time we hear "beautiful or lovely " we take a swig.

[polonium9]

we would be drunk within an hour, lol

[ftwelve12]

Also, sorry to make User Suggestion #1031930193, but it would be great if you guys could make another vid for this, but talking about cubic zirconia, why it's so passable as a diamond, why it's called "cubic" etc. It'd be an interesting chem lesson.

[Nogeri]

I remember a documentary on diamonds and artificial diamonds and it mentioned something about the atom structure. (The fake diamonds atoms were arranged in a octagon, the real ones a cube) I think it may be a similiar situation with "cubic" Zirconia

[TheCaptainLulz]

@ftwelve12 or the silicate, zircon, which is used to date rock samples (through its contaminants) to billions of years.

[blueduderanch]

@ftwelve12 very similar refractive index. glass has refractive index of ~1.4, diamond has refractive index of ~2.7

check it out. its cubic because of its arrangement in a unit cell.

[malango255]

well the prices of diamonds vary downto the quality and so on but there's a massive differece. I'd prefer a coloured stone to be honest suh as the multi coloured opal. I love those. diamonds are boring a a massive waste of cash, get an opal! heheh

[supersandor]

Not to mention cubic zirconia.

[DuskY1991]

Err... I heard about it but what is it? :D

[supersandor]

It's a refractory compound (meaning it remains solid to extremely high temperatures, even hotter than tungsten metal, on the order of 4000 kelvins, and tends to be extremely hard) which, in its pure form, happens to have similar chromatic aberrations to diamond. In other words, its refractive index, like diamond's, changes greatly between different colors - and that's why it's used as a substitute for diamond, though of course chemically it isn't artificial diamond but zirconium oxide.

[DuskY1991]

So this means you can fool someone by pretending you gave 'em a diamond and instead give em this?

[supersandor]

Of course. Why do you think they use it in the first place? Because it's hard to tell the difference. But a jeweler will know, they are trained SPECIFICALLY to know cubic zirconia from diamond because as many people have gotten the idea you just did as have gotten the idea to cheat on their taxes, so you couldn't get rich by conning people with it, you'd at best trick a girlfriend into thinking she's getting a real diamond. I'm surprised you'd not heard of cubic zirconia.

[DuskY1991]

Actually, i have heard of it, but i just didn't really know what it was. :D

Anyway, i'm not that kinda person so if i'd ever promise my girlfriend (which i don't have) a diamond, i would infact get one. A real one :D

[supersandor]

A big waste of money a real one would be in my opinion. It's just carbon. One of the most common elements in the universe. At least zirconium is slightly rare. The price of diamond is merely kept artificially high by the stranglehold De Beers has on the global diamond market. For comparison, it would be kind of like if one corporation had somehow managed to hoard all the world's copper so successfully, that they pushed its market price to above that of gold.

[DuskY1991]

You're absolutely rihgt, it's just carbon. :D

And yeah, carbon is really common. Some time ago I didn't even know about zirconium, until I was watching something i forgot. Well, a short time ago i started watching this periodic table of videos and i came across everything i didn't know much about. Including zirconium. :D

[malango255]

There's a simpsons episode where a guy steals the worlds largest cubic zirconia hahah. which is in the spring field museum.

And I totally agree with the diamond comments. funny thing is diamonds are very comman! just the big companies buy them all up then slowly sell them.

[DuskY1991]

Brings a certain exclusivity to diamond. :D

How much cheaper is cubic zirconia compared to diamond?

[BluBreathProductions]

those are probably artificial diamonds. Where they make the diamonds themselves. They are real diamonds, just not made naturally. They aren't really used for jewelery. They are used in tools such as a diamond toothed saw for the industrial industry

[ftwelve12]

All true, and the methods for diamond mining are despicable and inhumane, so when buying a diamond not only are you buying a useless, non-rare lump of carbon, you're also supporting an abhorrent, unethical industry that hasn't changed its labor standards for centuries =) Greed is forever.