• Question: what made you want to work with Zirconium?

    Asked by anon-227030 to William on 13 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: William Wiseman

      William Wiseman answered on 13 Nov 2019:

      The company I work for make all sorts of zirconium containing materials. On its own, it is quite boring and doesn’t really do too much. When you mix it with other elements, such as Cerium (Ce) or Yttrium (Y) then it comes a lot more useful. It can be a catalyst that goes into the catalytic converters on your car. It can become a very strong and hard ceramic material that is used in cutting tools or thermal barrier coatings on airplane engines.

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