Zirconium hafnium atom ratio

Figure 6 Depth profiles of (A) zirconium, (B) hafnium, and (C) the Zr/Hf atom ratio, in the North Pacific (solid symbols 50°N 145°W McKelvey and Orians, 1998) and in the North Atlantic (open symbols 48°N 15°W Godfrey et a ., 1996).

The effect of the lanthanide contraction on the metal and ionic radii of hafnium has already been mentioned. That these radii are virtually identical for zirconium and hafnium has the result that the ratio of their densities, like that of their atomic weights, is very close to Zr Hf = 1 2.0. Indeed, the densities, the transition temperatures and the neutron-absorbing abilities are the only common properties of these two elements which differ... 

Hafnium had lain hidden for untold centuries, not because of its rarity but because of its dose similarity to zirconium (16), and when Professor von Hevesy examined some historic museum specimens of zirconium compounds which had been prepared by Julius Thomsen, C. F. Rammelsberg, A. E. Nordenskjold, J.-C. G. de Marignac, and other experts on the chemistry of zirconium, he found that they contained from 1 to 5 per cent of the new element (26, 27). The latter is far more abundant than silver or gold. Since the earlier chemists were unable to prepare zirconium compounds free from hafnium, the discovery of the new element necessitated a revision of the atomic weight of zirconium (24, 28). Some of the minerals were of nepheline syenitic and some of granitic origin (20). Hafnium and zirconium are so closely related chemically and so closely associated in the mineral realm that their separation is even more difficult than that of niobium (columbium) and tantalum (29). The ratio of hafnium to zirconium is not the same in all minerals. 

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