A shiny, silvery metal that resists corrosion and can be drawn into wires. Hafnium is a good absorber of neutrons and is used to make control rods, such as those found in nuclear submarines. It also has a very high melting point and because of this is used in plasma welding torches.
Most hafnium that is produced is used to make nuclear reactor rods because controls the fission of uranium in a nuclear reactor by absorbing neutrons. Hafnium is being researched for potential use in transistors, and its high melting point allows it to be used in plasma welding torches.
Hafnium is a chemical element; it has symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray, tetravalent transition metal, hafnium chemically resembles zirconium and is found in many zirconium minerals.
Hafnium's story began in 1923, when Danish scientists Dirk Coster and
Georg von Hevesy were investigating the properties of element number
72. This element had been predicted by the periodic table, but
scientists hadn't been able to isolate it.
Through clever experiments, Coster and von Hevesy discovered that
element number 72 actually existed as two very similar elements. They
named the heavier one hafnium, after the ancient city of Hafnia, which
is now Copenhagen, Denmark. The lighter element was named zirconium.
This discovery was a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the periodic table and the nature of elements. It also highlighted the importance of careful scientific investigation and the potential for surprising findings.
The primary source of hafnium is heavy mineral sands that contain zircon, typically with a hafnium to zirconium ratio of approximately 1 to 50. Australia and South Africa are the world's leading producers of these heavy mineral sands.