Zirconium carbide (ZrC) is an extremely hard refractory ceramic material. It is usually processed by sintering. It has the appearance of a gray metallic powder with cubic crystal structure.
It is used as an abrasive, in metal cladding, in cermets, incandescent filaments and cutting tools. Owing to its good high-temperature mechanical properties, excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, high melting point, and strong chemical resistance, it is a potential coating, oxygen-gettering, or inert matrix material for advanced high-temperature nuclear application. Hafnium-free zirconium carbide can be used as refractory coatings in nuclear reactors. Attributing to its low neutron absorption cross-section and weak damage sensitivity under irradiation, it can be used as the coating of uranium dioxide and thorium dioxide particles of nuclear fuel. In particular, ZrC is being considered as a structural and fission product barrier coating material for TRISO (tri-isotropic) coated nuclear fuel used in high temperature reactors (HTR’s), replacing or in addition to the currently used silicon carbide (SiC).
Nanometer zirconium carbide can be used in hard alloy, nano-structured parts and devices for metallurgical, chemical, aerospace, energy, and aviation industry. It can be used in new insulation thermostat textitles, reformed naylon, functional fiber which can absorb and save heat energy. It is used for the surface coating of metal and other materials, for composite materials as the fabrication of metal matrix, ceramic matrix and polymer nanocomposites, as sintering additives and as grain refining agents or nucleating agents.
