Zirconium-containing natural silicate ZrSiO4, known as zircon or hyacinth, is widely distributed in nature and boasts a variety of beautiful colors ranging from orange to red. It has been considered a gemstone since ancient times. The word "zircon" is said to derive from the Arabic word "zarqūn," meaning cinnabar, or from the Persian word "zargun," meaning gold. "Hyacinth" comes from the Greek word for "lily." Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, is rich in zircon. Gemstones containing zircon, in the form of zircon, have been known since ancient times.
In 1789, the German M.H. Klaproth, while studying zircon, discovered that by fusing it with sodium hydroxide, dissolving the cooled substance in hydrochloric acid, adding potassium carbonate to the solution, precipitating it, filtering and washing the precipitate, then boiling the precipitate with sulfuric acid, and filtering away silicon oxides, he found no calcium, magnesium, or aluminum oxides in the filtrate. Upon adding potassium carbonate to the solution, a precipitate appeared. This precipitate did not dissolve in alkaline solutions like aluminum oxide, nor did it react with acids like magnesium oxide. Klaproth concluded that this precipitate was unlike any previously known oxide and was composed of Zircone (German for zircon). Soon after, the French chemists de Morueau and Vauquelin confirmed that M.H. Klaproth's analysis was correct. The element's Latin name is Zirconium, symbol Zr, translated as zirconium in Chinese.
In 1808, H. Davy of England attempted to decompose zirconium compounds using an electric current, but failed. In 1824, J.J. Berzelius of Sweden first produced metallic zirconium by reducing K₂ZrF₆ with potassium, but it was not pure enough. The reaction formula is: K₂ZrF₆ + 4K = Zr + 6KF. This reaction can also use sodium as a reducing agent. It wasn't until 1914 that two researchers, Lely and Ham bruger, at a Dutch metal incandescent lamp manufacturer, obtained pure metallic zirconium by placing anhydrous zirconium tetrachloride and excess metallic sodium in a hollow sphere and heating it to 500°C using an electric current.
Completely pure zirconium was not produced until 1925 by Dutch chemists Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer, by decomposing zirconium tetraiodide (ZrI₄). Zirconium is then mass-produced by heating zirconium tetrachloride with magnesium.
