It is a yellow, microcrystalline powder, soluble in water, alcohol and chloroform, and forming readily decomposed salts with acids.
Zirconium iodide, Zr14, was obtained as a yellow, microcrystalline solid by acting with hydriodic acid on heated zirconium (Wedekind, Ber., 1904, 37, p. 1135).
It is never crystallized, but may have a fibrous or microcrystalline structure, and commonly occurs in concretionary forms or in compact and earthy masses; sometimes mammillated, botryoidal, reniform or stalactitic. The colour presents various shades of brown and yellow, and the streak is always brownish, a character which distinguishes it from haematite with a red, or from magnetite with a black streak.
It is a dark red microcrystalline powder, insoluble in carbon bisulphide, oil of turpentine, &c., and having a density of 2.2.
I am using microcrystalline cellulose, a major pharmaceutical excipient, in various forms of soft solid.