Zirconia cubic

Cubic Zirconia. As of this writing, cubic zirconia [1314-23 ], is the best diamond imitation available (Table 3). It is marketed under... 

Drilling diamonds using a focused laser beam to bum out dark inclusions or make the inclusions accessible to a chemical treatment is a frequent enhancement. In a potential deception, a cubic zirconia diamond imitation was laser drilled to make it more convincing (15). 

Similarly, fusion of milled zircon with dolomite or lime forms CaSiO and MgZrO [12032-31 -4] CaZrO [12013-47-7] and CaO Ca2SiO or CaSiO and Zr02, and is used to prepare zirconium oxide, usually as calcia-stabiUzed cubic zirconia because of the calcia left in soHd solution in the zirconia (27-29). 

The hydroxides as precipitated are amorphous, but if they are refluxed ia a neutral or slightly acidic solution they convert to a mixture of cubic and monoclinic hydrous zirconia crystaUites on continued refluxing, only the monoclinic form persists (196). If the refluxing is conducted in an alkaline solution, metastable cubic zirconia is formed (197). 

The addition of MgO leads to the formation of a naiTow range of solid solutions at high temperamre, which decompose to precipitate inclusions of tetragonal Zr02 dispersed in cubic zirconia. The material, which functions as a solid electrolyte, has the added advantage that the inclusions stop the propagation of any cracks which may arise from rapid temperature change. 

Cubic zirconia Oxygen ions O Zirconium ions... 

Fig. 16.1. Ionic ceramics, (a) The rocksalt, or NoCl, structure, (b) Magnesia, MgO, has the rocksalt structure. It can be thought of as an f.c.c. packing with Mg ions in the octahedral holes. ( ) Cubic zirconia ZrOj an f.c.c. packing of Zr with O in the tetrahedral holes, (d) Alumina, AljOj a c.p.h. packing of oxygen with Al in two-thirds of the octahedral holes.

This "packing" argument may seem an unnecessary complication. But its advantage comes now. Consider cubic zirconia, ZrOj, an engineering ceramic of growing importance. The structure (Fig. 16.1c) looks hard to describe, but it isn t. It is simply an f.c.c. packing of zirconium with the ions in the tetrahedral holes. Since there are two tetrahedral holes for each atom of the f.c.c. structure, the formula works out at ZrOj. 

The oxidation-resistant SiC fiber was prepared from polycarbosilane containing Zr(OC4H9)4 by the same process as that used for the aforementioned tita-nia/silica fiber, except that the calcination was performed in Ar atmosphere at 1400 °C. In this case, the polycarbosilane and Zr(OC4H9)4 were effectively converted into SiC-based bulk ceramic and zirconium oxide (cubic zirconia). Before the conversion, bleed-out of the zirconium compound proceeded effectively. AES depth analysis of the fiber surface showed an increase in the concentration of zirconium towards the surface. This construction was confirmed by the TEM image of the cross-section near the fiber surface. This indicates the direct production of a SiC-based fiber covered with a Zr02 surface layer, which... 

Materials such as cubic zirconia, diamond and sapphire may be used for transmission windows for special applications. 

The hosts for ACT and REE immobilization are phases with a fluorite-derived structure (cubic zirconia-based solid solutions, pyrochlore, zirco-nolite, murataite), and zircon. The REEs and minor ACTs may be incorporated in perovskite, monazite, apatite-britholite, and titanite. Perovskite and titanite are also hosts for Sr, whereas hollandite is a host phase for Cs and corrosion products. None of these ceramics is truly a single-phase material, and other phases such as silicates (pyroxene, nepheliiie, plagioclase), oxides (spinel, hibonite/loveringite, crichtonite), or phosphates may be present and incorporate some radionuclides and process contaminants. A brief description of the most important phases suitable for immobilization of ACTs and REEs is given below. 

Wang, L. M., Zhu, S., Wang, S. X. Ewing, R. C. 2001. Effects of cesium, iodine and strontium ion implantation on the microstructure of cubic zirconia. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, 663, 293-300. 

There are three types of gemstone materials as defined by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (1) (/) natural gemstones are found in nature and at most are enhanced (see Gemstones, gemstone treatment) (2) imitation or simulated, fake, faux, etc, material resembles the natural material in appearance only and is frequendy only colored glass or even plastic and (3) synthetic material is the exact duplicate of the natural material, having the same chemical composition, optical properties, etc, as the natural, but made in the laboratory (2,3). Moreover, the word gem cannot be used for synthetic gemstone material. The synthetic equivalent of a natural material may, however, be used as an imitation of another, eg, synthetic cubic zirconia is widely used as a diamond imitation. 

Diamond is supreme among natural gemstones in H, RI, and DISP. Table 3 shows the steady improvement in the sequence of diamond imitations, the aim being to produce a colorless, adequately hard material having closely matching optical properties. The introduction of synthetic cubic zirconia in 1976 brought about a sufficiently dose match. 

Several gemstone species occur in various colors, depending on the presence of impurities or irradiation-induced color centers. Examples are the beryl, corundum, and quartz families. Quartz has poor optical properties (RI = 1.55, DISP = 0.013), but becomes of gemological interest when it exhibits attractive colors. Any material can have its color modified by the addition of various impurities synthetic mby, sapphires, and spind are produced commercially in over 100 colors (2). Synthetic cubic zirconia has been made in essentially all colors of the spectrum (11), but only the colorless diamond imitation is produced commercially in any quantity. 

Cubic Zirconia. As of this writing, cubic zirconia [1314-23-4], Zr02, is the best diamond imitation available (Table 3). It is marketed under such names as CZ, Cerene, Cubic zirconium, Diamonair II, Diamonique III, Fianite, etc, and grown by the skull melting technique (2,5,13). Pure Zr02 is... 

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