JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society. 



[Contributions to the Chemistry of Zirconium. No. 5.] 

 A STUDY OF THE ZIRCONATES. 



By F. p. Venablk and Thomas Clarke. 



This class of compounds of zirconium has received but 

 little attention from chemists, The chief investig-ator in 

 the past who has worked in this field was Hiortdahl.^ 

 Of recent years several papers by L. Ouvrard' have ap- 

 peared. The accounts given in the various text books of 

 these zirconates are based upon the work of Hiortdahl or 

 upon such abstracts of it as were to be found in the Jah- 

 resberichte, or in such dictionaries as that of Watts. 

 This is unfortunate, as to the best of our knowledg'e the 

 work of Hiortdahl itself is in some respects inaccurate 

 and erroneous, and the abstracts of it are misleading". 

 Before giving- an account of our own experiments, it may 

 be well to g-ather tog-ether the statements reg-arding- these 

 bodies ; s given by Watts and in the original article of 

 Hiortdahl. 



Watts says that the compounds of zirconia with the 

 stronger bases are obtained by precipitating- a zirconium 

 salt with potash or soda, also by ig-niting zirconia with an 

 alkaline hydroxide. "Zirconate of potassium thus ob- 

 tained, dissolves completely in water." His first mode 

 of preparing the zirconates is very questionable; the last 

 statement is not true. He then goes on and describes 

 zirconates of sodium, calcium and mag-nesium, as describ- 

 ed by Hiortdahl. The details of HiortdahTs analyses, 



^ Ann. Chan. Pharm., 137, ZA,236. 

 ■ 2CompL Bend., 112, 1U-4G, and 113, 1021-23. 



