GENPHOAL TECHNOLOGY(B.V.I.)CO., LTD

Model Number: GK-325 Brand Name: GENPHOAL Key Specifications/Special Features: Hafnium is a chemical element with the symbol Hf and atomic number 72.A lustrous, silvery gray, tetravalent transition metal, hafnium chemically resembles zirconium and is found in zirconium minerals.Its existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, though hafnium was not identified until 1923, making it the penultimate stable isotope element to be discovered (rhenium was identified two years later).Hafnium is named after Hafnia, the Latin name for Copenhagen, where it was discovered. [2]Hafnium is used in filaments and electrodes. Some semiconductor fabrication processes use its oxide for integrated circuits at 45 nm and smaller feature lengths. Some super alloys used for special applications contain hafnium in combination with niobium, titanium, or tungsten.Hafnium's large neutron capture cross-section makes it a good material for neutron absorption in control rods in nuclear power plants, but at the same time requires that it be removed from the neutron-transparent corrosion-resistant zirconium alloys used in nuclear reactors.



Characteristics[edit]

Physical characteristics[edit]



Hafnium bits

Hafnium is a shiny, silvery, ductile metal that is corrosion-resistant and chemically similar to zirconium[3] (due to its having the same number of valence electrons and being in the same group). The physical properties of hafnium metal samples are markedly affected by zirconium impurities, especially the nuclear properties, as these two elements are among the most difficult to separate because of their chemical similarity. [3]



A notable physical difference between these metals is their density, with zirconium having about one-half the density of hafnium. The most notable nuclear properties of hafnium are its high thermal neutron-capture cross-section and that the nuclei of several different hafnium isotopes readily absorb two or more neutrons apiece. [3] In contrast with this, zirconium is practically transparent to thermal neutrons, and it is commonly used for the metal components of nuclear reactors – especially the claddings of their nuclear fuel rods.