Zinc

Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the 24th most abundant element in Earth’s crust and has five stable isotopes. Corrosion-resistant zinc plating of iron is the major application for zinc. Other applications are in electrical batteries, small non-structural castings, and alloys such as brass.

About Zinc in brief

Summary Zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the 24th most abundant element in Earth’s crust and has five stable isotopes. The most common zinc ore is sphalerite, a zinc sulfide mineral. Zinc is refined by froth flotation of the ore, roasting, and final extraction using electricity. Corrosion-resistant zinc plating of iron is the major application for zinc. Other applications are in electrical batteries, small non-structural castings, and alloys such as brass. The element was probably named by the alchemist Paracelsus after the German word Zinke. The oldest evidence of pure zinc comes from Zawar, in Rajasthan, as early as the 9th century AD when a distillation process was employed to make pure zinc. Consumption of excess zinc may cause ataxia, lethargy, and copper deficiency. zinc deficiency affects about two billion people in the developing world and is associated with many diseases. In children, deficiency causes growth retardation, delayed sexual maturation, infection susceptibility, and diarrhea. Enzymes with a zinc atom in the reactive center are widespread in biochemistry, such as alcohol dehydrogenase in humans. For a metal, zinc has relatively low melting and boiling points. The melting point is the lowest of all the d-block metals aside from mercury and cadmium.

Many alloys contain zinc, including brass. Other metals long known to form binary alloys are aluminium, bismuth, gold, iron, lead, mercury, magnesium, tellurium and sodium. Although neither zinc nor zrconium is ferromagnetic, their alloy Zn2 exhibits a sound similar to ferromagnetism, bent, similar to tin. Soil contains zinc in an average of 5,770–770ppm with an average mppm of 64ppm. The metal is hard and brittle at most temperatures but becomes malleable between 100 and 150 °C, and can be pulverized by beating. It has a hexagonal crystal structure, with a distorted form of hexagonal close packing, in which each atom has six nearest neighbors in its own plane and six others at a greater distance of 290. 6 pm. Zn is a fair conductor of electricity. It was discovered by Andreas Sigismund Marggraf in 1746 and is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table to have a normal oxidation state. It can also be found in base metals such as tin, nickel, cobalt, silver, silver and nickel, as well as in the base metals tin and cobalt. It makes up about 75 ppm in Earth’s crust, making it the 24st most abundant Element in the Earth”s crust and the second most common element in the atmosphere. It also has a stable isotope, Zn1, and is used in the production of zinc compounds.