Zirconium tungstate
Neil Withers investigates a compound with some unusual and unexpected behaviour
When you heat things up, they generally get bigger. That’s what I learnt at school, and for most things it holds true. But not all. There are some materials that actually shrink as they get hotter, and zirconium tungstate, ZrW2O8, is one of the most studied and best understood.
Why does zirconium tungstate act so counterintuitively, and, besides its undoubted interest as a curious and interesting phenomenon, what use is negative thermal expansion?
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