All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 30, a transition metal
The coating that keeps steel from rusting, the core of the modern US penny, and a mineral your immune system cannot work without.
Period 4, group 12. The other transition metals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Zinc gives up its two 4s electrons to form Zn²⁺ and almost never loses a d electron. Unlike most transition metals it has only one common ion, and its compounds are usually white.
Mined mostly as sphalerite (ZnS), often together with lead, in China, Peru and Australia. After iron, it is the most abundant trace metal in the human body.
Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, was made in ancient times, and zinc metal was being smelted in India centuries before Europe knew it. Andreas Marggraf isolated it in 1746 and described the method carefully. The name comes from the German Zink, perhaps from Zinke, prong, after the jagged crystals of the metal.
About half is used to galvanize steel, coating it so the zinc corrodes instead of the iron. Zinc also makes brass, die-cast parts and alkaline battery anodes, and US pennies minted since 1982 are 97.5% zinc under a thin copper plating. Zinc oxide goes into sunscreen, diaper cream, rubber tires and paint.