Zinc Oxide - History

History

It is hardly possible to trace the first usage of zinc oxide – zinc compounds were used by early humans, in processed and unprocessed forms, as a paint or medicinal ointment, but their composition is uncertain.

The use of pushpanjan, probably zinc oxide, as a salve for eyes and open wounds, is mentioned in the Indian medical text the Charaka Samhita, thought to date from 500 BC or before. Zinc oxide ointment is also mentioned by the Greek physician Dioscorides (1st century AD.) Avicenna mentions zinc oxide in The Canon of Medicine (1025 AD), which mentioned it as a preferred treatment for a variety of skin conditions, including skin cancer. Though it is no longer used for treating skin cancer, it is still widely used to treat a variety of other skin conditions, in products such as baby powder and creams against diaper rashes, calamine cream, anti-dandruff shampoos, and antiseptic ointments.

The Romans produced considerable quantities of brass (an alloy of zinc and copper) as early as 200 BC by a cementation process where copper was reacted with zinc oxide. The zinc oxide is thought to have been produced by heating zinc ore in a shaft furnace. This liberated metallic zinc as a vapor, which then ascended the flue and condensed as the oxide. This process was described by Dioscorides in the 1st century AD. Zinc oxide has also been recovered from zinc mines at Zawar in India, dating from the second half of the first millennium BC. This was presumably also made in the same way and used to produce brass.

From the 12th to the 16th century zinc and zinc oxide were recognized and produced in India using a primitive form of the direct synthesis process. From India, zinc manufacture moved to China in the 17th century. In 1743, the first European zinc smelter was established in Bristol, United Kingdom.

The main usage of zinc oxide (zinc white) was again paints and additive to ointments. Zinc white was accepted as a watercolor by 1834 but it did not mix well with oil. This problem was quickly solved by optimizing the synthesis of ZnO. In 1845, LeClaire in Paris was producing the oil paint on a large scale, and by 1850, zinc white was being manufactured throughout Europe. The success of zinc white paint was due to its advantages over the traditional white lead: zinc white is essentially permanent in sunlight, it is not blackened by sulfur-bearing air, it is non-toxic and more economical. Because zinc white is so "clean" it is very valuable for making tints with other colors; however, it makes a rather brittle dry film when unmixed with other colors. For example, during the late 1890s and early 1900s, some artists used zinc white as a ground for their oil paintings. All those paintings developed cracks over the years.

In the recent times, most zinc oxide was used in the rubber industry (see applications above). In the 1970s, the second largest application of ZnO was photocopying. High-quality ZnO produced by the "French process" was added into the photocopying paper as a filler. This application was however soon displaced.