ZR crucible

[dsinjc]

ok So I was rumaging through some lab equipment and i found some metal pieces they were untouched by sulferic, aswell as nitric. So i decided to do an experiment. I put a small piece of each in a beaker with AR and nothing happened.SO i heated the AR and the first piece reacted as soon as it came to boil.the second did nothing.So i continued to boil and after 5 minutes the 1st piece was reacting vigorously. the second was really doing nothing. Upon removing from heat the 1st piece was still reacting in the AR the 2nd was virually untouched.So i went back into the supply box and found that the 1st was part of a centrafuge, a heat shield of some sort.i researched them online and found that they sell for about $90 so i am guessing not PT I found more of the 2nd and the tag said ZR crucible So i am guessinng these are zirconium crucibles. I researched them online and all I found were pictures of crucibles that looked like some kind of ceramic make up.The ones i have are metal.So does anyone know anything about what i may have ?? or what value they may have ?? would they be usefull for melting gold or platinum ??

As a side note i also found some stuff called CC cement high temp. it says it is for embedding heat elements and insulating thermocouples, or coating resistors and coils.now it says that the one part is zirconium silicate , and the second sodium fluoride. anyone heard of it or have a use for it ??

 

[Harold_V]

would they be usefull for melting gold or platinum ??

In general, it's rarely a good idea to use a metallic vessel to melt other metallic elements. While some may be forgiving (lead melted in cast iron, for example), the solvent power of molten metals tends to become a real problem, even when well below their melting points of the material from which the vessel is made.

I could be wrong-----but I'd say don't use them for melting.

Harold