Zirconium Silicide, ZrSi₂

Zirconium Silicide, ZrSi₂, was obtained by Wedekind by reducing zirconia with excess of crystalline silicon, and by Honigschmid by means of the Goldschmidt reaction, in which 200 grams of powdered aluminium, 250 grams of sulphur, 180 grams of fine sand, and 15 grams of zirconium or 40 grams of potassium zirconifiuoride, K₂ZrF₆, were mixed together in a Hessian crucible, covered with a layer of powdered magnesium, and ignited. The purified product forms small steel-grey crystals of the hardness of felspar and of density 4.88; the powdered substance burns when heated in the air and dissolves in hydrofluoric acid with evolution of hydrogen. Colloidal zirconium silicide has also been obtained by Wedekind.