The commonly used methods of producing and processing zirconium powder -- hydrogenation-dehydrogenation method, zirconium metal (powder) begins to react violently with hydrogen at a certain temperature. When the hydrogen content is more than 2.3%, the product is loose and easy to be crushed into fine particles of zirconium hydride powder. The zirconium hydride powder passes through a temperature above 500℃. Starting dehydrogenation until the temperature of about 1000℃, dehydrogenation basically finished, zirconium powder can be obtained. The temperature and pressure in the process of producing zirconium powder by hydrogenation - dehydrogenation are analyzed.
The results show that the content of hydrogen in zirconium decreases gradually with the increase of temperature. At 800℃, zirconium hydride decomposes rapidly with endothermic peak. The hydrogenation reaction temperature range of zirconium is 400 ~ 800℃, and the dehydrogenation reaction temperature range is about 800 ~ 1000℃. Hydrogenation dehydrogenation method is, in fact, a kind of zirconium sponge, edge horn zirconium, zirconium scraps scrap processed into zirconium powder production process, not the effect of removing impurity, so hydrogenation dehydrogenation method of zirconium powder production, the main impurity depends on the purity of the raw material itself, if strictly pay attention to the operation of the link, will introduce a small amount of impurities such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the experiment proved that to get a low hydrogen content berkelium powder, High vacuum and dehydrogenation temperature are required, but the temperature should be moderate, otherwise it will make the zirconium powder sintered. After hydrogenation, the content of hydrogen in zirconium powder is generally 3.8%±0.2%. For the zirconium powder made from the same raw material, the finer the particle size, the higher the oxygen content.
