INTRODUCTION
Zinc is a crystalline metal, insoluble in hot and cold water and soluble in alcohol, acids, and alkalies. It is unaffected by dry air; in moist air it is oxidized and becomes coated with a carbonate film that protects it from further corrosion.
It is the 24th most abundant element in Earth’s crust. It never occurs free in nature, but is found in the mineral smithsonite, franklinite, sphalerite, zincite, hemimorphite.
BASIC INFORMATIONS
- Atomic Number
- 30
- Atomic Mass
- 65.38
- Atomic radius
- 0.125
- Ionization energy
- 906
- Electronic config
- 2,8,18,2
- Principal Valency
- +2
- Density g/cm³
- 7.14
- Melting point °C
- 419.53
- Boiling point °C
- 907
- Type of Element
- Metal
- Electronegativity
- 1.6
- Element Category
- Zinc Group
- Appearance
- Bluish white solid
- Block
- d-block
- Period
- 4
- Group
- 12
- No of Isotopes
- 30
- Occurrence
- Combine form
- Abundance in ppm
- 76
- Year of Discovery
- 1746
EXTRACTION
It is converted to its oxide and then reduce by carbon in the eletric furnace
OXIDATION STATES
+2,+1,0 (Amphoteric)
MAJOR SOURCE
Smithsonite and Sphalerite.
EXAMPLES OF COMPOUND PRESENT
Zinc oxide, Zinc silicate, Zinc sulfide, Zinc carbonate,
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
* Zinc is used mostly as a protective coating, or galvanizer, for iron and steel.
* Zinc chloride is used as a wood preservative and as a soldering fluid.
* Zinc oxide, known as zinc white or Chinese white, is used as a paint pigment.
* Zinc sulfide is useful in applications involving electroluminescence, photoconductivity, and semiconductivity and has other electronic uses.
