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Topic Pages contain an overview, definitions, biographies, related topics, images, plus links to relevant articles and other content provided by your library. Topic Page: Hafnium

Definition: hafnium from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

Silvery, metallic element, atomic number 72, relative atomic mass 178.49. It occurs in nature in ores of zirconium, the properties of which it resembles. Hafnium absorbs neutrons better than most metals, so it is used in the control rods of nuclear reactors; it is also used for light-bulb filaments.

It was named in 1923 by Dutch physicist Dirk Coster (1889–1950) and Hungarian chemist Georg von Hevesy after the city of Copenhagen, where the element was discovered.

Summary Article: hafnium from The Columbia Encyclopedia

(hăf'nēəm), metallic chemical element; symbol Hf; at. no. 72; at. wt. 178.49; m.p. about 2,227 degrees Celsius; b.p. 4,602 degrees Celsius; sp. gr. 13.31 at 20 degrees Celsius; valence +4. Hafnium is a lustrous, ductile, silvery metal with a hexagonal, close-packed crystalline structure. Its chemical properties are almost identical to those of zirconium, the element directly above it in Group 4 of the periodic table. The two elements are among the most difficult to separate—zirconium is almost always an impurity in hafnium and affects its physical properties. Finely powdered hafnium can spontaneously ignite in air; because of this reactivity the metal has found use in the manufacture of light bulbs and vacuum tubes as a scavenger for small amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. Hafnium reacts directly with the halogens to form tetrahalides, and when heated it reacts with carbon, boron, sulfur, and silicon. Hafnium carbide is a refractory material with an extremely high melting point. Hafnium metal is produced by the Kroll process, in which a hafnium tetrahalide is reacted with magnesium or sodium metal. Because it is a good neutron absorber, hafnium metal is often used for nuclear reactor control rods. It has been alloyed with several other metals, among them iron and titanium. Hafnium is found widely distributed in nature, usually in association with zirconium minerals such as zircon. The existence of hafnium was suspected for many years before it was demonstrated (1923) through X-ray spectroscopic analysis by Dirk Coster and Georg von Hevesy. They named the element for Hafn, Latin for Copenhagen, the city where they had made the discovery.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, © Columbia University Press 2017
"hafnium." In The Columbia Encyclopedia, by Paul Lagasse, and Columbia University. 7th ed. Columbia University Press, 2017. https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/hafnium
hafnium. (2017). In P. Lagasse & Columbia University, The Columbia encyclopedia. (7th ed.). [Online]. New York: Columbia University Press. Available from: https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/hafnium [Accessed 22 April 2018].
"hafnium." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Paul Lagasse, and Columbia University, Columbia University Press, 7th edition, 2017. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/hafnium. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.

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Philip's Encyclopedia

(symbol Hf) Silvery metallic element, one of the transition elements . Dutch physicist Dirk Coster and Hungarian chemist Georg von Hevesy...

Full text Article hafnium
The Penguin English Dictionary

/hafni·əm/ noun a silvery metallic transition chemical element that occurs naturally in zirconium ores, and is used in tungsten alloys...

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Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

pronunciation (1923) : a metallic element that resembles zirconium in its chemical properties, occurs esp. in zirconium minerals, and readily absorb

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