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Hafnium Overview
Hafnium is a ductile metal with a brilliant silver luster. It is corrosion-resistant and chemically similar to zirconium. The properties of hafnium are remarkably affected by zirconium impurities and these two elements are amongst the most difficult to separate. The only notable difference between them is their density (zirconium is about half as dense as hafnium).
Hafnium has been successfully alloyed with iron, titanium, niobium, tantalum, and other metals. Hafnium carbide is the most refractory binary composition known, and the nitride is the most refractory of all known metal nitrides with a melting point of 3310°C.
Hafnium is resistant to concentrated alkalis, but at elevated temperatures reacts with oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, boron, sulfur, and silicon. Halogens react directly to form tetrahalides. At 700°C hafnium rapidly absorbs hydrogen to form the composition HfH 1.86 . |
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