Editing Zirconium (section)

==History==
The zirconium-containing mineral zircon and related minerals ([[jargoon]], [[jacinth]], or hyacinth, [[Priestly breastplate#Third row|ligure]]) were mentioned in biblical writings.<ref name="CRC2008" /><ref name="Stwertka" /> The mineral was not known to contain a new element until 1789,<ref name="greenwood">{{cite book|title=The History and Use of our Earth's Chemical Elements|last=Krebs|first=Robert E.|date=1998|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-30123-0|location=Westport, Connecticut|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyuseofoure00kreb/page/98 98–100]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyuseofoure00kreb/page/98}}</ref> when [[Martin Heinrich Klaproth|Klaproth]] analyzed a jargoon from the island of Ceylon (now [[Sri Lanka]]). He named the new element Zirkonerde (zirconia),<ref name="CRC2008" /> related to the [[Persian Language|Persian]] ''[[Jargoon|zargun]]'' (zircon; ''zar-gun'', "gold-like" or "as gold").<ref name=":2" /> [[Humphry Davy]] attempted to isolate this new element in 1808 through [[electrolysis]], but failed.<ref name="nbb" /> Zirconium metal was first obtained in an impure form in 1824 by [[Jöns Jakob Berzelius|Berzelius]] by heating a mixture of potassium and potassium zirconium fluoride in an iron tube.<ref name="CRC2008" /> 

The ''[[crystal bar process]]'' (also known as the ''Iodide Process''), discovered by [[Anton Eduard van Arkel]] and [[Jan Hendrik de Boer]] in 1925, was the first industrial process for the commercial production of metallic zirconium. It involves the formation and subsequent [[thermal decomposition]] of [[zirconium tetraiodide]] ({{chem2|ZrI4}}), and was superseded in 1945 by the much cheaper [[Kroll process]] developed by [[William Justin Kroll]], in which zirconium tetrachloride ({{chem2|ZrCl4}}) is reduced by magnesium:<ref name="madehow" /><ref name="metal1998">{{cite book|first=James B.|last=Hedrick|contribution=Zirconium|title=Metal Prices in the United States through 1998|date=1998|pages=175–178|publisher=US Geological Survey|url=http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/metal_prices/metal_prices1998.pdf|access-date=2008-02-26}}</ref>

:{{chem2 | ZrCl4 + 2 Mg -> Zr + 2 MgCl2 }}