Element · Layer 0, Atomic number 30
Zinc
A bluish-gray metal used mostly to coat steel against rust, and in brass, alkaline batteries and zinc oxide.
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About
Zinc is a bluish-gray metal mined mostly as the mineral sphalerite, a zinc sulfide, with China, Peru and Australia the top producers. Brass, its alloy with copper, was made in ancient times, and the pure metal was produced in India centuries before Andreas Marggraf isolated it in Europe in 1746.
About half of all zinc is used to protect steel. Zinc corrodes before iron does, so a coating sacrifices itself to guard the metal beneath, as in galvanized steel and the plating on each screw. Zinc is also about one third of brass, the powdered anode of every alkaline battery, and the metal in zinc oxide.
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