I have a question about zinc chloride salt powder. When I put zinc chloride powder in an oven at a temperature of 50 degrees to dry it (because it may absorb moisture), after about an hour, the powder melts and becomes liquid, while the melting temperature of zinc chloride salt is about 290 degrees.
Can anyone help me and tell me why this is happening?
Is it possible that this powder has a lot of impurities and is practically not zinc chloride salt? Could this be related to the vial of salt? I put the salt powder in a glass vial inside the oven.
The salt that "melts" in the oven at 50 degrees is not zinc chloride (ZnCl2), but one of five hydrated zinc chloride, e.g. tetrahydrate (ZnCl2.4H2O). When heated to 50°C, water is split off (ZnCl2.4H2O = ZnCl2 + 4H2O) and outwardly it seems that the salt is melting.
Dear Vadim Verlotski ; Thank you very much for your answer. According to what you are saying, a little powder should be visible, which is not the case and all the powder turns into liquid. On the other hand, I analyzed this powder with XRF test and I will put the result here for you. As can be seen, it is only about 54% of powder is zinc! Is this normal and can I use this powder as a zinc chloride salt?
Vadim Verlotski
Dear Fariba Abdollazadeh,
Please, take a look on the following paper: Article The effect of water on ZnCl2 and its glasses
Probably you are experiencing the deliquescence phenom with your salt. The manuscript states that above 90°C anhydrous ZnCl2 crystal is not deliquescent.
I hope that my answer has helped you... All the best!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Materials Engineering
- Powders