Hafnium Sheets and Plates THK Over 0.5mm

Our Hafnium Sheets and Plates are available in varying thicknesses and can be ordered to different sizes and Specifications. 

Hf sheets and plates are produced from Hafnium crystal bars and are of higher purity and quality.

Grade: Hf+Zr>99.95%

Thickness:0.5mm to 6.0mm

Width: within 1000mm

Length within 2000mm

Hafnium Material Application

Most of the hafnium produced is used in the manufacture of control rods for nuclear reactors.

Hafnium has limited technical applications due to a few factors. First, it's very similar to zirconium, a more abundant element that can be used in most cases. Second, pure hafnium wasn't widely available until the late 1950s, when it became a byproduct of the nuclear industry's need for hafnium-free zirconium. Additionally, hafnium is rare and difficult to separate from other elements, making it expensive. After the Fukushima disaster reduced the demand for hafnium-free zirconium, the price of hafnium increased significantly from around $500–600/kg in 2014 to around $1000/kg in 2015.

The nuclei of several hafnium isotopes can each absorb multiple neutrons. This makes hafnium a good material for nuclear reactors' control rods. Its neutron capture cross section (Capture Resonance Integral I_o ≈ 2000 barns)^[56] is about 600 times that of zirconium (other elements that are good neutron-absorbers for control rods are cadmium and boron). Excellent mechanical properties and exceptional corrosion-resistance properties allow its use in the harsh environment of pressurized water reactors.The German research reactor FRM II uses hafnium as a neutron absorber.^[57] It is also common in military reactors, particularly in US naval submarine reactors, to slow reactor rates that are too high.^[58][59] It is seldom found in civilian reactors, the first core of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station (a conversion of a naval reactor) being a notable exception.