zinc group element
- Related Topics:
- chemical element
- zinc
- mercury
- cadmium
- copernicium
zinc group element, any of the four chemical elements that constitute Group 12 (IIb) of the periodic table—namely, zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and copernicium (Cn). They have properties in common, but they also differ in significant respects. Zinc, cadmium, and mercury are metals with a silvery-white appearance and relatively low melting points and boiling points; mercury is the only common metal that is liquid at room temperature, and its boiling point is lower than that of any other metal.
Three of these elements are found in different proportions in the Earth’s crust: it has been estimated that zinc is present to the extent of 80 parts per million (compared with 70 for copper and 16 for lead). The estimate for cadmium is only 0.15; commercially, it is always found associated with zinc or zinc–lead ores and is produced only as a by-product of zinc and lead smelting. The proportion of mercury in the Earth’s crust is estimated at 0.08 parts per million. All important mercury deposits consist of mercuric sulfide, known as the mineral cinnabar. Copernicium has only been produced in a particle accelerator.
Comparative properties of the group
Some properties of the zinc group elements are listed in the following Table.
| zinc | cadmium | mercury | |
|---|---|---|---|
| atomic number | 30 | 48 | 80 |
| atomic weight | 65.409 | 112.411 | 200.59 |
| melting point (°C) | 419.53 | 321.07 | −38.83 |
| boiling point (°C) | 907 | 767 | 356.73 |
| density (grams per cubic centimetre): solid | 7.14 (20 °C) | 8.65 (20 °C) | 14.17 (−38.9 °C) |
| density (grams per cubic centimetre): liquid | 6.57 | 7.996 | 13.546 |
| valence | 2 | 2 | 2, 1 |
| isotopic abundance (terrestrial, percent) | 64 (48.63), 66 (27.9), 67 (4.1), 68 (18.75), 70 (0.62) | 106 (1.25), 108 (0.89), 110 (12.49), 111 (12.8), 112 (24.13), 113 (12.22), 114 (28.73), 116 (7.49) | 196 (0.15), 198 (9.97), 199 (16.87), 200 (23.1), 201 (13.18), 202 (29.86), 204 (6.87) |
| radioactive isotopes (mass numbers) | 55–63, 69–83 | 95–105, 107, 109, 113, 115, 117–132 | 172–195, 197, 203, 205–210 |
| heat of fusion (calories per mole/kilojoules per mole) | 1,760 (7.35) | 1,500 (6.3) | 547 (2.29) |
| heat of vaporization (kilojoules per mole) | 119 | 100 | 59.2 |
| specific heat (joules per gram Kelvin) | 0.388 | 0.231 | 0.14 |
| electrical resistivity at 20 °C (microhm-centimetres) | 5.9 | 7 | 96 |
| hardness (Brinell number in megapascals) | 412 | 203 | — |
| crystal structure | hexagonal close-packed | hexagonal close-packed | rhombohedral |
| radius: metallic (angstroms) | 1.37 | 1.52 | 1.55 |
| radius: ionic (+2 ion, angstroms) | 0.88 | 1.09 | 1.16 |
| ionization energy (electron volts): first | 906.4 | 867.8 | 1,007.10 |
| ionization energy (electron volts): second | 1,733.30 | 1,631.40 | 1,810 |
| ionization energy (electron volts): third | 3,833 | 3,616 | 3,300 |
| electronegativity (Pauling) | 1.65 | 1.69 | 2 |
Chemical reactivity
Zinc, cadmium, and mercury can lose the two electrons in the outermost shell to form dipositive ions, M2+ (in which M represents a generalized metal element), thereby exposing the next innermost shell with a stable configuration in each case of 18 electrons. Ordinary chemical reactions cannot supply enough energy to remove more than two electrons and thus increase the oxidation state above +2, though any number of electrons can be removed under conditions that can provide the necessary energy, such as intense heat or powerful electric or magnetic fields. These three elements tend to use the two outer electrons for covalent bonding; this tendency is most marked in the case of mercury, less so in that of zinc, and least with cadmium.
Zinc exhibits only the +2 oxidation state. It can give up two electrons to form an electrovalent compound; e.g., zinc carbonate ZnCO3. It may also share those electrons, as in zinc chloride, ZnCl2, a compound in which the bonds are partly ionic and partly covalent. Dipositive mercury also forms covalent bonds in mercuric chloride, HgCl2.
Cadmium compounds are mainly ionic, but cadmium also forms complex ions with ligands (atoms, ions, or molecules that donate electrons to a central metal ion); e.g., the complex ion with ammonia NH3, having the formula [Cd(NH3)4]2+, or with the cyanide ion, the formula [Cd(CN)4]2−. Differing from zinc and mercury, cadmium can form the complex ions represented by the formulas [CdCl3]− and [CdCl4]2− in solution.
Mercury in its +2 and +1 oxidation states forms the ions Hg2+ and [Hg2]2+, respectively. In the latter, two electrons are shared in a covalent bond between the two metal atoms. The [Hg2]2+ ion shows little tendency to form complexes, whereas the Hg2+ ion does form them. In contrast to compounds of mercury in the +2 state, which are usually covalent, all the common salts of mercury in the +1 state are ionic, and the soluble compounds—e.g., mercurous nitrate, Hg2(NO3)2—show normal properties of ionic compounds, such as ease of dissociation or breakup into separate ions in solution.
Mercury is exceptional in that, unlike zinc or cadmium, it does not react easily with oxygen on heating, and mercuric oxide does not show the acid property of forming salts (mercurates), whereas zinc oxide does this readily. Mercury is again anomalous in that it does not produce hydrogen, as do zinc and cadmium, upon treatment with dilute acids. With fairly concentrated nitric acid, zinc and cadmium evolve oxides of nitrogen and form zinc or cadmium nitrates; mercury gives both mercuric nitrate, Hg(NO3)2, and mercurous nitrate, Hg2(NO3)2. A further characteristic of mercury that is uncommon among metals is its readiness to form stable compounds containing a mercury–carbon bond or a mercury–nitrogen bond. As a result, mercury forms a wide variety of organic compounds (compounds that always contain carbon, usually also hydrogen, and often one or more of the elements oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur). On the whole, therefore, the zinc group elements do not show a smooth gradation of properties, mainly because of the number of anomalous properties of mercury, which in many respects shows a greater similarity to silver than to zinc and cadmium.
Analysis
The classical chemical methods of analysis are now rarely employed except for standardization. When this is required, the methods most commonly employed are the titration of zinc (i.e., addition of a measured volume of a standardized solution of ferrocyanide ion until the exact amount necessary for complete reaction has been added), the conversion of cadmium to cadmium sulfide, which is isolated and weighed, and the colorimetric estimation of mercury (comparison of the intensity of the colour produced by reaction with the substance dithizone with that produced by the same treatment of known amounts of mercury). In daily practice, colorimetry and polarography (a method based on the response of electric current to a steadily increasing electromotive force applied to a solution) are widely used but are being rapidly replaced by other techniques of greater rapidity, simplicity, or accuracy. These modern procedures include atomic absorption spectroscopy (based on the absorption of light of certain wavelengths by atoms present in a flame) and X-ray fluorescence (based on the emission of radiation of characteristic wavelengths when X rays impinge on a sample).