Zinc is a bluish-white, lustrous metal. It is brittle at ordinary temperatures but malleable at 100 to 150 o C. It is a fair conductor of electricity, and burns in air at high red heat with evolution of white clouds of the oxide. It has unusual electrical, thermal, optical, and solid-state properties that have not been fully investigated. The metal is employed to form numerous alloys with other metals. Brass, nickel silver, commercial bronze, soft solder, and aluminum solder are some of the more important alloys. Large quantities of zinc are used to produce die castings, which are used extensively by the automotive, electrical, and hardware industries. Zinc is also used extensively to galvanize other metals such as iron to prevent corrosion. Zinc oxide is widely used in the manufacture of paints, rubber products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, floor coverings, plastics, printing inks, soap, storage batteries, textiles, electrical equipment, and other products. Zinc sulfide is used in making luminous dials, X-ray and TV screens, and fluorescent lights The chloride and chromate are also important compounds. Zinc is available as metal and compounds with purities from 99% to 99.9999% (ACS grade to ultra-high purity); metals in the form of foil, sputtering target, and rod, and compounds as submicron and nanopowder.

Zinc facts, including appearance, CAS #, and molecular formula and safety data, research and properties are

(click on an element)

Oxides are available in forms including powders and dense pellets for such uses as optical coating and thin film applications. Oxides tend to be insoluble. Fluorides are another insoluble form for uses in which oxygen is undesirable such as metallurgy, chemical and physical vapor deposition and in some optical coatings. Zinc is available in soluble forms including chlorides, nitrates and acetates. These compounds are also manufactured as solutions at specified stoichiometries.

All elemental metals, compounds and solutions may be synthesized in ultra high purity (e.g. 99.999%) for laboratory standards, advanced electronic, metallurgy and optical materials and other high technology advantages. Information is provided for stable (non-radioactive) isotopes. Organo-Metallic Zinc compounds are soluble in organic or non-aqueous solvents. See Analytical Services for information on available certified chemical and physical analysis techniques including MS-ICP, X-Ray Diffraction, PSD and Surface Area (BET) analysis.

Zinc was first discovered by Andreas Marggraf in 1746.

Zinc

Zink

Zinco

Zinco

Cinc

Zink

Abundance. The following table shows the abundance of zinc and each of its naturally occurring isotopes on Earth along with the atomic mass for each isotope.