An alchemical symbol for zinc is against an abstract background inspired by zinc roofing materials. A silvery-white metal with a blue tinge. It tarnishes in air. Most zinc is used to galvanise other metals, such as iron, to prevent rusting. Galvanised steel is used for car bodies, street lamp posts, safety barriers and suspension bridges.
Large quantities of zinc are used to produce die-castings, which are important in the automobile, electrical and hardware industries. Zinc is also used in alloys such as brass, nickel silver and aluminium solder. Zinc oxide is widely used in the manufacture of very many products such as paints, rubber, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, plastics, inks, soaps, batteries, textiles and electrical equipment.
Zinc sulfide is used in making luminous paints, fluorescent lights and x-ray screens. Biological role. Zinc is essential for all living things, forming the active site in over 20 metallo-enzymes.
The average human body contains about 2. Some foods have above average levels of zinc, including herring, beef, lamb, sunflower seeds and cheese. Zinc can be carcinogenic in excess. Natural abundance. Zinc is found in several ores, the principal ones being zinc blende zinc sulfide and calamine zinc silicate.
The principal mining areas are in China, Australia and Peru. Commercially, zinc is obtained from its ores by concentrating and roasting the ore, then reducing it to zinc by heating with carbon or by electrolysis. World production is more than 11 million tonnes a year.
Help text not available for this section currently. Elements and Periodic Table History. Zinc was known to the Romans but rarely used. It was first recognised as a metal in its own right in India and the waste from a zinc smelter at Zawar, in Rajasthan, testifies to the large scale on which it was refined during the period to the Zinc refining in China was carried out on a large scale by the s. An East India Company ship which sank off the coast of Sweden in was carrying a cargo of Chinese zinc and analysis of reclaimed ingots showed them to be almost the pure metal.
In , a Flemish metallurgist, P. Moras de Respour, reported the extraction of metallic zinc from zinc oxide, but as far as Europe was concerned zinc was discovered by the German chemist Andreas Marggraf in , and indeed he was the first to recognise it as a new metal.
Atomic data. Glossary Common oxidation states The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom. Oxidation states and isotopes. Glossary Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey. Relative supply risk An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk.
Recycling rate The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. Substitutability The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. Reserve distribution The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves.
Political stability of top producer A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators.
Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Supply risk. Relative supply risk 4. Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance. Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material.
Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Zinc Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
This week the chemical behind calamine lotion for itchy skin, anti dandruff shampoo for a flaky scalp and underarm deodorant for - well, I think we've probably all stood next to someone whom we wish knew a bit more about the chemistry of zinc. Here's Brian Clegg. There aren't many elements with names that are onomatopoeic. Say 'oxygen' or 'iodine' and there is no clue in the sound of the word to the nature of the element.
But zinc is different. Zinc - zinc - zinc - you can almost hear a set of coins falling into an old fashioned bath. It just has to be a hard metal. In use, Zinc is often hidden away, almost secretive. It stops iron rusting, soothes sunburn, keeps dandruff at bay, combines with copper to make a very familiar gold-coloured alloy and keeps us alive, but we hardly notice it.
This blue-grey metal, known commercially as spelter, is anything but flashy and attention-grabbing. Even the origins of that evocative name are uncertain. The dictionary tells us that the word zinc comes from the German with a K at the end instead of a C , but how that name came into being is unknown. The earliest reference to zinc was in The substance was known before - objects with zinc in them date back over 2, years, and the Romans used that gold coloured alloy - but zinc wasn't identified as a distinct material in the west until the seventeenth century.
Represented in the periodic table as Zn, zinc is a transition metal, grouped with cadmium and mercury. With the middling atomic number 30, it has five stable isotopes of atomic weight from the dominant zinc 64 to zinc 70, plus an extra 25 radioisotopes. Because of its hazy origins, it's difficult to pin down one person as the discoverer of the element.
Although it seems to have been refined in India as early as the twelfth century, the earliest specific claim to have produced the metal was back in , and a process for extracting zinc from its oxide was patented in the UK in by metal trader William Champion. But it is usually the German chemist Andreas Marggraf who wins the laurels as 'discoverer' for his experiment isolating zinc. A typical galvanized coating can now be expected to last 70 to years without maintenance in most urban and rural atmospheres.
Login Close. Zinc has a self-healing mechanism in it. The zinc coating sacrifices itself slowly by galvanic action to protect the base steel. This sacrificial action continues as long as any zinc remains in the immediate area. Zinc melts at F C , and boils at 1, F C. Zinc comprises an estimated 0. Zinc ranks 24th in order of material abundance in the Earth.
Zinc is essential for the growth and development of almost all life: between 1. Zinc is found everywhere in daily life: in every cell of the human body, in the earth, in the food we eat and in products we use sunblock, automobiles, cosmetics, airplanes, appliances, surgical tools, zinc lozenges.
Children need zinc for growth. Adults need zinc for reproduction and good health. The U. Today, most zinc is produced through the electrolysis of aqueous zinc sulfate ZnSO 4. Roughly one third of all metallic zinc produced today is used in a process known as galvanization. During galvanization, an object that is subject to corrosion, such as an iron nail, is given a protective coating of zinc. The zinc can be applied to an object by dipping it in a pool of molten zinc, but it is most often applied through an electroplating process.
Sacrificial zinc anodes are used in cathodic protection systems to protect exposed iron from corrosion. Metallic zinc is also used to make dry cell batteries, roof cladding and die castings. Zinc is used to make many useful alloys. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile.
Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Ryan Wojes. Ryan Wojes wrote about commodities and metals for The Balance and worked as a metallurgist for more than 13 years. LinkedIn LinkedIn. Updated January 12, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format.
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