In fact electricity's role is surprisingly subtle. The most common form of galvanization is hot dip galvanization, where iron or steel is slid through a bath of liquid zinc at around degrees Celsius, forty degrees above its melting point. The coating prevents the object treated from rusting. Initially the zinc simply stops the air getting to the iron, but later the zinc corrodes in preference to iron in an electro-chemical process, acting as a so-called sacrificial anode.
This is where the 'galvanic' part of the name comes in. Some galvanization is more literally electrical - car bodies, for example, are electroplated with zinc to apply a thin, even layer. Zinc's electrical capabilities also extend to the most popular batteries. A traditional dry cell has an outer zinc casing acting as the anode confusingly the anode, usually thought of as positive, is the negative end of a battery , while a carbon rod provides the cathode, the positive electrode.
In the longer lasting alkaline batteries, the anode is formed from powdered zinc giving more surface area for reaction , while the cathode is made up of the compound manganese dioxide. But the most visible example of zinc at work doesn't give any indication of this greyish metal - instead it's in an alloy that mixes the sheen of gold with the common touch. When molten zinc and copper are mixed together, the result is bold as brass.
In fact, it is brass. Everything from door fixings to decorative plaques for horse collars have been made in this flexible alloy. Any orchestra would be much poorer without its brass instruments. It's even likely to turn up in the zips on your clothing.
Well-polished brass has a pleasant glow - but our most intimate contact with zinc, or to be precise zinc oxide - often comes when dealing with the unwanted glow of sunburn. When I was young and there was little in the way of sun block, sunburned skin would be lavishly coated in soothing pink calamine lotion. The primary ingredient of this is zinc oxide, which is white - it's small amounts of iron oxide that give it that colour. Even now, though, when we can avoid the need for calamine, zinc oxide plays its part.
Called Chinese white when it's used in paints, zinc oxide is a good absorber of ultraviolet light - so sun block often contains a suspension of tiny zinc oxide particles - as does most mineral-based makeup. And that's just the start for this versatile oxide. You'll find it used in fire retardants and foods - where it fortifies the likes of breakfast cereals - in glass and ceramics, in glues and rubber.
That surprise appearance on the breakfast table reflects another important side to zinc. We need it to stay healthy. It's one of the trace elements, nutrients that our bodies need in small quantities to keep functioning. It's often present in vitamin supplements, though most of us get plenty from meat and eggs. The zinc ends up in various proteins, particularly in enzymes involved in the development of the body, digestion and fertility.
A shortage of zinc in the diet can lead to delayed healing, skin irritation and loss of the sense of taste, and encourages many chronic illnesses.
With zinc also appearing in anti-dandruff shampoos in the form of zinc pyrithione and in underarm deodorants as zinc chloride, this is an element that even makes us more attractive to the opposite sex. Zinc is a hidden star. We're rarely aware of it, unlike its flashier neighbours in the period table, but zinc is a workhorse element that helps us all. Bristolbased science writer Brian Clegg with the onomatopoeic element, zinc.
Next week, what's lurking in your basement. The first reports of problems associated with radon gas in domestic buildings was in the United States in , when an employee at a nuclear power plant began setting off the radiation detector alarms on his way into work. The problem was eventually traced to his home, where the level of radon gas in the basement was found to be abnormally high.
But where was it coming from and what was the risk to his health. Katherine Holt will be here with all of the answers and the rest of the Radon story on next week's Chemistry in its Element, I do hope you can join us. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening, and goodbye. Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld.
Click here to view videos about Zinc. View videos about. Help Text. Learn Chemistry : Your single route to hundreds of free-to-access chemistry teaching resources. We hope that you enjoy your visit to this Site. We welcome your feedback.
Data W. Haynes, ed. Version 1. Coursey, D. Schwab, J. Tsai, and R. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions version 4. Periodic Table of Videos , accessed December Podcasts Produced by The Naked Scientists. Download our free Periodic Table app for mobile phones and tablets.
Explore all elements. D Dysprosium Dubnium Darmstadtium. E Europium Erbium Einsteinium. F Fluorine Francium Fermium Flerovium. G Gallium Germanium Gadolinium Gold.
I Iron Indium Iodine Iridium. K Krypton. O Oxygen Osmium Oganesson. U Uranium. V Vanadium. X Xenon. Y Yttrium Ytterbium. Z Zinc Zirconium. Membership Become a member Connect with others Supporting individuals Supporting organisations Manage my membership. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Youtube. Discovery date.
Identified as an element in , but known to the Greeks and Romans before 20BC. 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. Melting point. Boiling point. Atomic number.
Relative atomic mass. Key isotopes. Electron configuration. CAS number. ChemSpider ID. ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database. Electronegativity Pauling scale. Zinc group element, any of the four chemical elements that constitute Group 12 IIb of the periodic table—namely, zinc Zn , cadmium Cd , mercury Hg , and copernicium Cn. Why is ZN the symbol for zinc? The word is probably derived from the German zinke, and supposedly meant "tooth-like, pointed or jagged" metallic zinc crystals have a needle-like appearance.
Zink could also imply "tin-like" because of its relation to German zinn meaning tin. The metal was also called Indian tin, tutanego, calamine, and spinter.
What are the 5 isotopes of zinc? Naturally occurring zinc 30Zn is composed of the 5 stable isotopes 64Zn, 66Zn, 67Zn, 68Zn, and 70Zn with 64Zn being the most abundant What type of metal is zinc? Zinc Zn , chemical element, a low-melting metal of Group 12 IIb, or zinc group of the periodic table, that is essential to life and is one of the most widely used metals. Zinc is of considerable commercial importance.
What color is zinc? Natural zinc is bluish-white or blue-gray in color. As an alloy, particularly where it is mixed with other metals, zinc takes on additional colors. For example, bayldonite is an alloy of zinc, copper and lead and has a green color. Is there another name for zinc? Other source minerals for zinc include smithsonite zinc carbonate , hemimorphite zinc silicate , wurtzite another zinc sulfide , and sometimes hydrozincite basic zinc carbonate.
Why is zinc not malleable? Alloys of zinc with small amounts of copper, aluminium, and magnesium are useful in die casting as well as spin casting, especially in the automotive, electrical, and hardware industries. Zinc alloys have low melting points, require relatively low heat input, do not require fluxing or protective atmospheres. Because of their high fluidity, zinc alloys can be cast in much thinner walls than other die castings alloys, and they can be die cast to tighter dimensional tolerances.
A proton is one of the subatomic particles that make up matter. In the universe, protons are abundant, making up about half of all visible matter. The proton has a mean square radius of about 0. The protons exist in the nuclei of typical atoms, along with their neutral counterparts, the neutrons.
Neutrons and protons, commonly called nucleons , are bound together in the atomic nucleus, where they account for Research in high-energy particle physics in the 20th century revealed that neither the neutron nor the proton is not the smallest building block of matter. A neutron is one of the subatomic particles that make up matter. In the universe, neutrons are abundant, making up more than half of all visible matter. It has no electric charge and a rest mass equal to 1.
The neutron has a mean square radius of about 0. Atomic nuclei consist of protons and neutrons, which attract each other through the nuclear force , while protons repel each other via the electric force due to their positive charge. These two forces compete, leading to various stability of nuclei. There are only certain combinations of neutrons and protons, which forms stable nuclei.
Neutrons stabilize the nucleus , because they attract each other and protons , which helps offset the electrical repulsion between protons. As a result, as the number of protons increases, an increasing ratio of neutrons to protons is needed to form a stable nucleus. If there are too many or too few neutrons for a given number of protons, the resulting nucleus is not stable and it undergoes radioactive decay.
Unstable isotopes decay through various radioactive decay pathways, most commonly alpha decay, beta decay, or electron capture. Many other rare types of decay, such as spontaneous fission or neutron emission are known.
It should be noted that all of these decay pathways may be accompanied by the subsequent emission of gamma radiation. Pure alpha or beta decays are very rare. The periodic table is a tabular display of the chemical elements organized on the basis of their atomic numbers, electron configurations, and chemical properties.
0コメント