By protecting steel against corrosion, zinc protects buildings, automobiles, ships and steel structures of every kind from corrosion by the atmosphere, water, and soil. By protecting against corrosion and its costly effects, zinc extends the life of steel, thus protecting investments.
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. If you wish to use the Images in a manner not permitted by these terms and conditions please contact the Publishing Services Department by email. If you are in any doubt, please ask. Commercial use of the Images will be charged at a rate based on the particular use, prices on application.
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Jump to main content. Periodic Table. Glossary Allotropes Some elements exist in several different structural forms, called allotropes. Discovered by Andreas Marggraf Origin of the name The name is derived from the German, 'zinc', which may in turn be derived from the Persian word 'sing', meaning stone.
Glossary Group A vertical column in the periodic table. Fact box. Group 12 Melting point Glossary Image explanation Murray Robertson is the artist behind the images which make up Visual Elements. Appearance The description of the element in its natural form.
Biological role The role of the element in humans, animals and plants. Natural abundance Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially. Uses and properties. Image explanation. 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. Zinc was first used in China by at least A. At first, ancient people used zinc ores mostly to make brass an alloy of copper with zinc.
So what is zinc good for? About half of the 12 million tons produced a year go to galvanization, according to the IZA. Seventeen percent of zinc's annual production goes into brass and bronze, and yet another 17 percent is used in die-casting, the production of metal parts with the use of molds. The rest goes to other manufacturing uses, such as creating roofing materials, or into chemical compounds such as zinc oxide.
This white powder shows up in everything from sunscreens to solar cells to nuclear reactors, where it helps prevent corrosion. Zinc also has a role in health. It's an essential mineral that keeps the body's enzymes humming.
Zinc deficiency can slow growth and hamper the immune system, according to the National Institutes of Health. Some of the weirdest side effects of zinc deficiency involve abnormalities of smell and taste, because the metal is crucial to these processes. Although zinc compounds have been used for at least 2, years in the production of brass, zinc wasn't recognized as a distinct element until much later.
Metallic zinc was first produced in India sometime in the s by heating the mineral calamine ZnCO 3 with wool. Zinc was rediscovered by Andreas Sigismund Marggraf in by heating calamine with charcoal. 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.
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