Is zinc chloride a volatile substance?

1 Answer
Dwight
Feb 2, 2018

No.

Explanation:

Volatility refers to how rapidly a substance will change from solid or liquid into vapour.

Because zinc chloride is an ionic solid (like all metallic compounds) and forms a crystal structure with strong ionic bonds, an ion must acquire a very large amount of kinetic energy to break free of the crystal and become part of the vapour phase.

At any moderate temperature, the likelihood that this happens is very low. So, as a result, ionic solids tend to be non-volatile in general.

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