Specialty Digest

Global English editionLearners’ Study Dashboard — in development
The Knowledge Library for All
Encyclopedia / Science & Mathematics

Chemistry

Specialty Knowledge entries in Chemistry.

Xenon flash lamp in a Metz electronic flash unit

Xenon

Xenon is the chemical element with atomic number 54 and the symbol Xe. It is a colorless, odorless noble gas that makes up only about 0.086 parts per million of the atmosphere by volume. Xenon is best known for the bright light it gives off in flash lamps and for its role as a propellant

Xenon Read More »

A colorless, odorless noble gas with atomic number 54, used in flash lamps and ion propulsion and obtained from liquid air.

Pieces of zinc metal

Zinc

Zinc is the chemical element with atomic number 30 and the symbol Zn. It is a silvery-white metal with a blue tinge that tarnishes in air, and it sits in group 12 of the periodic table. Most zinc is used to protect steel from rusting, and the element is also essential to every living thing.

Zinc Read More »

A silvery-white metal with atomic number 30, used mainly to galvanize steel and essential to all living things.

Crystal bar of high-purity zirconium metal

Zirconium

Zirconium is the chemical element with atomic number 40 and the symbol Zr. It is a hard, silvery transition metal in group 4 of the periodic table, and it is very resistant to corrosion. More than 90 percent of the metal is used in nuclear power stations, because it hardly absorbs neutrons. History of zirconium

Zirconium Read More »

A hard, silvery, corrosion-resistant transition metal with atomic number 40 that is used mostly in nuclear reactors and ceramics.