Question

Does zinc react in distilled water?

Answer 1

see below

Explanation:

thermodynamically zinc should react with distilled water because its redox potential is -0,76 V while for neutral water is -0,42 V, so we should have:
`Zn + 2 H^+ = Zn^(2+) + H_2`. But cinetically this reaction doesn't occur (it need an high activation energy to develop a gas on its surface) unless there is an opportune catalyst.
So Zn is used to preserve iron from corrosion by covering the same iron with thin layers of zinc