Zinc

It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table.

It includes zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg).

The most common zinc ore is sphalerite (zinc blende), a zinc sulfide mineral.

Sphalerite ((Zn, Fe)S) is a mineral that is the chief ore of zinc.

Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc in various proportions, was used as early as the third millennium BC in the Aegean, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kalmykia, Turkmenistan and Georgia, and the second millennium BC in West India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Israel/Palestine.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve varying mechanical and electrical properties.

Corrosion-resistant zinc plating of iron (hot-dip galvanizing) is the major application for zinc.

Galvanization or galvanizing (also spelled galvanisation or galvanising) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting.

A variety of zinc compounds are commonly used, such as zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate (as dietary supplements), zinc chloride (in deodorants), zinc pyrithione (anti-dandruff shampoos), zinc sulfide (in luminescent paints), and dimethylzinc or diethylzinc in the organic laboratory.

Zinc gluconate is the zinc salt of gluconic acid.

Zinc deficiency affects about two billion people in the developing world and is associated with many diseases.

Zinc deficiency is defined either as insufficient zinc to meet the needs of the body, or as a serum zinc level below the normal range.

A variety of zinc compounds are commonly used, such as zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate (as dietary supplements), zinc chloride (in deodorants), zinc pyrithione (anti-dandruff shampoos), zinc sulfide (in luminescent paints), and dimethylzinc or diethylzinc in the organic laboratory.

Zinc pyrithione (or pyrithione zinc) is a coordination complex of zinc.

A variety of zinc compounds are commonly used, such as zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate (as dietary supplements), zinc chloride (in deodorants), zinc pyrithione (anti-dandruff shampoos), zinc sulfide (in luminescent paints), and dimethylzinc or diethylzinc in the organic laboratory.

Diethylzinc (C 2 H 5 ) 2 Zn, or DEZ, is a highly pyrophoric and reactive organozinc compound consisting of a zinc center bound to two ethyl groups.

Corrosion-resistant zinc plating of iron (hot-dip galvanizing) is the major application for zinc.

It is the process of coating iron and steel with zinc, which alloys with the surface of the base metal when immersing the metal in a bath of molten zinc at a temperature of around 449 C. When exposed to the atmosphere, the pure zinc (Zn) reacts with oxygen (O 2 ) to form zinc oxide (ZnO), which further reacts with carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to form zinc carbonate (ZnCO 3 ), a usually dull grey, fairly strong material that protects the steel underneath from further corrosion in many circumstances.

The melting point is the lowest of all the d-block metals aside from mercury and cadmium; for this, among other reasons, zinc, cadmium, and mercury are often not considered to be transition metals like the rest of the d-block metals.

This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury.

Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30.

Other metals long known to form binary alloys with zinc are aluminium, antimony, bismuth, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, tin, magnesium, cobalt, nickel, tellurium, and sodium.

Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.

German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf is credited with discovering pure metallic zinc in 1746.

He isolated zinc in 1746 by heating calamine and carbon.

Other source minerals for zinc include smithsonite (zinc carbonate), hemimorphite (zinc silicate), wurtzite (another zinc sulfide), and sometimes hydrozincite (basic zinc carbonate).

Hemimorphite, is Zn 4 (Si 2 O 7 )(OH) 2 ·H 2 O, a component of calamine.

A variety of zinc compounds are commonly used, such as zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate (as dietary supplements), zinc chloride (in deodorants), zinc pyrithione (anti-dandruff shampoos), zinc sulfide (in luminescent paints), and dimethylzinc or diethylzinc in the organic laboratory. Other source minerals for zinc include smithsonite (zinc carbonate), hemimorphite (zinc silicate), wurtzite (another zinc sulfide), and sometimes hydrozincite (basic zinc carbonate).

Smithsonite, or zinc spar, is zinc carbonate (ZnCO 3 ), a mineral ore of zinc.

The melting point is the lowest of all the d-block metals aside from mercury and cadmium; for this, among other reasons, zinc, cadmium, and mercury are often not considered to be transition metals like the rest of the d-block metals. Other metals long known to form binary alloys with zinc are aluminium, antimony, bismuth, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, tin, magnesium, cobalt, nickel, tellurium, and sodium.

The absence of a filled inner f shell is the reason for the somewhat higher melting temperature of cadmium and zinc, although both these metals still melt easily and, in addition, have unusually low boiling points.

The melting point is the lowest of all the d-block metals aside from mercury and cadmium; for this, among other reasons, zinc, cadmium, and mercury are often not considered to be transition metals like the rest of the d-block metals.

Zinc, cadmium, and mercury are generally excluded from the transition metals, as they have the electronic configuration [ ]d 10 s 2, with no incomplete d shell.

Other source minerals for zinc include smithsonite (zinc carbonate), hemimorphite (zinc silicate), wurtzite (another zinc sulfide), and sometimes hydrozincite (basic zinc carbonate).

Wurtzite is a zinc iron sulfide mineral ((Zn,Fe)S) a less frequently encountered mineral form of sphalerite.

Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc in various proportions, was used as early as the third millennium BC in the Aegean, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kalmykia, Turkmenistan and Georgia, and the second millennium BC in West India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Israel/Palestine.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.

In children, deficiency causes growth retardation, delayed sexual maturation, infection susceptibility, and diarrhea.

Zinc tablets are also recommended.

Although neither zinc nor zirconium are ferromagnetic, their alloy exhibits ferromagnetism below 35 K.

Alloys with zinc are magnetic at less than 35 K.

Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in Earth's crust and has five stable isotopes.

Alchemists burned zinc in air to form what they called "philosopher's wool" or "white snow".

Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula ZnO.

The most common decay mode of a radioisotope of zinc with mass number higher than 66 is beta decay, which produces an isotope of gallium.

Gallium does not occur as a free element in nature, but as gallium(III) compounds in trace amounts in zinc ores and in bauxite.

Enzymes with a zinc atom in the reactive center are widespread in biochemistry, such as alcohol dehydrogenase in humans.

In humans this list commonly includes iron, magnesium, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, and molybdenum.