ElementsWhat is zinc?
Zinc is a bluish-white metal. The body needs a little of it, and it is added to some foods and tablets. Zinc was smelted in India many centuries before it was isolated in Europe.
What is zinc used for?
Galvanising steel to stop rust, brass (with copper), batteries, die-cast parts, and zinc oxide in creams and rubber.
Where the name comes from
Probably from the German word zinke, meaning prong or point, for the shape of its crystals.
Key facts
- Symbol
- Zn
- Atomic number
- 30
- Atomic mass
- 65.4 u
- Family
- Transition metal
- Period
- 4
- Group
- 12
- Block
- d
- State at room temperature
- Solid
- Melting point
- 419.5 °C (692.68 K, 787 °F)
- Boiling point
- 906.9 °C (1,180 K, 1,664 °F)
- Density
- 7.13 g/cm³
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 8, 18, 2
- Electron configuration
- [Ar]4s2 3d10
- Common oxidation states
- +2
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 1.65
- First ionisation energy
- 9.394 eV
- Electron affinity
- no value
- Atomic radius (van der Waals)
- 139 pm
- Discovered
- 1746
Place in the periodic table
Zinc is element number 30. It sits in period 4 (row 4) of the periodic table, in group 12 (column 12), and belongs to the d-block. Just before it comes copper (29), and just after it comes gallium (31). In the same column, cadmium is below it. Elements in one column tend to behave alike.
Family: Transition metals.
Physical properties
At room temperature zinc is a solid. It melts at 419.5 °C and boils at 906.9 °C, so it stays liquid over a range of 487 degrees. Its density is 7.13 grams per cubic centimetre, so a one-litre block would weigh about 7.13 kilograms. By density it ranks 48th among the 96 elements with a measured value.
Inside the atom
An atom of zinc has 30 protons in its nucleus and, when neutral, 30 electrons around it. The electrons are arranged in 4 shells: 2, 8, 18, 2. The outermost shell holds 2 electrons. Written in full, the electron configuration is [Ar]4s2 3d10.
Its electronegativity on the Pauling scale is 1.65. This number shows how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons towards itself: fluorine, the strongest, is 3.98. Removing one electron from an atom takes 9.394 electronvolts (about 906 kilojoules per mole). One mole of zinc weighs 65.4 grams, so a single gram contains about 9.21 × 1021 atoms.
The ring picture is a simple model that only counts the electrons in each shell. Real atoms do not look like this.
Next steps
- Work out the weight of a compound that contains zinc with the molar mass calculator.
- Compare it with every other element in the sortable list.
- Test yourself with the symbol quiz.
Figures on this page are from PubChem (U.S. National Library of Medicine), as downloaded on 11 November 2026. See About and data sources.