A Brief Discussion on the Applications of Zinc Powder

2016-07-30

Zinc, as a basic metal, plays a significant role in economic life and has a wide range of applications. Zinc powder, as an important form of zinc, is widely used in daily life. The price of zinc powder is relatively lower than that of ordinary zinc, which greatly expands the application space of zinc powder. Zinc powder, pure zinc is a gray metal, with metallic luster, melting point 419.5℃, boiling point 918℃, density 7.13g/cm3. The raw material used to manufacture zinc powder is zinc ingot, with the grade ZN-4 and a purity of 99.5%. Zinc has considerable corrosion resistance in the atmosphere, but it is not corrosion-resistant in acidic and alkaline salts. When zinc is in contact with metals with stronger positive electricity,

Zinc, as a base metal, plays a significant role in the economy and has a wide range of applications. Zinc powder, an important form of zinc, is widely used in daily life. The price of zinc powder is relatively lower than that of ordinary zinc, which greatly expands the application space of zinc powder.

Zinc powder: Pure zinc is a gray metal with a metallic luster, melting point 419.5℃, boiling point 918℃, density 7.13g/cm3. The raw material used to manufacture zinc powder is zinc ingot, with the grade ZN-4 and a purity of 99.5%. Zinc has considerable corrosion resistance in the atmosphere, but it is not resistant to corrosion in acidic and alkaline salts. When zinc comes into contact with metals with stronger positive electricity, zinc is corroded first, forming oxides. Therefore, zinc can be used as a protective layer. A large amount of zinc powder forms an interconnected conductive layer within the coating. When the coating encounters electrochemical corrosion, due to the negative electrode potential difference of zinc iron, it is corroded first, playing a cathodic protection role and protecting the steel substrate; zinc in contact with acidic food can generate toxic zinc salts, so it cannot be used for coating food equipment.

In paints, zinc powder is mainly used as an anti-rust pigment. The general dosage is high, reaching 60%~80%, to make zinc-rich paint. Zinc powder has a high density and is easy to settle. During paint production, in addition to adding a small amount of anti-settling agent, it is generally packaged separately from the paint base and mixed as needed.

Zinc powder is mainly used in the chemical industry, such as in the production of sodium hydrosulfite, lithopone, zinc white, and dye intermediates, as a reducing agent, with a large dosage and slightly coarser particle size than zinc powder for coatings. The average particle size of zinc powder for general chemical use produced by a foreign company is 6～9μm. Zinc powder is also widely used in corrosion protection. Corrosion protection of steel components is the most important use of metallic zinc. Coating methods include hot-dip galvanizing, electroplating, thermal spraying, zinc-rich coatings, powder coating, etc., with hot-dip galvanizing being the most important method. Zinc-rich coatings are mainly used for large steel structures unsuitable for hot-dip galvanizing and electroplating, such as large outdoor steel structures (marine engineering, bridges, pipelines, etc.), ships, and containers.

 

The steel industry is the largest consumer of zinc, with galvanized steel being the largest application area. The consumption structure of zinc is as follows: galvanized industry accounts for 34% of zinc consumption, battery industry accounts for 25%, and zinc chemical products account for 14.3%.

 

Currently, the market hotspots for deep processing of zinc powder mainly focus on: mercury-free battery zinc powder, fine zinc powder, flake zinc powder, active zinc oxide (transparent zinc oxide), zinc oxide whiskers, and nano zinc oxide. With the further increase in future electricity demand and the increasing urgency of social demand for batteries, zinc powder may experience a consumption peak in the next few years, and the price of zinc powder will naturally rise strongly.

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