Zirconia dictionary definition

zirconia

Noun

(countable and uncountable, plural zirconias)

(chemistry) The oxide of zirconium, obtained as a white powder, and possessing both acid and basic properties. On account of its infusibility, and brilliant luminosity when incandescent, it is used as an ingredient of sticks for the Drummond light.

In the same year as Klaproth detected uranium, he also isolated zirconia or zirconium oxide from the mineral variously known as zircon, hyacinth, jacynth and jargoon; but he failed to obtain the metal, this being first accomplished some years later by Berzelius, who decomposed the double potassium zirconium fluoride with potassium.
Zirconium oxide or zirconia, Zr02, has become important since its application to the manufacture of mantles for incandescent gas-lighting.
The double fluoride is decomposed with hot concentrated sulphuric acid; the mixed sulphate is dissolved in water; and the zirconia is precipitated with ammonia in the cold.
Zirconia can be obtained crystalline, in a form isomorphous with cassiterite and rutile, by fusing the amorphous modification with borax, and dissolving out with sulphuric acid.
Zirconia, when heated to whiteness, remains unfused, and radiates a fine white light, which suggested its utilization for making incandescent gas mantles; and, in the form of disks, as a substitute for the lime-cylinders ordinarily employed in "limelight."

zirconia