Note 4 bis — Chapter XVI · ZINC, CADMIUM, AND MERCURY

When mixed with zinc oxide it forms, with remarkable ease, a very hard mass of zinc oxychloride, which is applied in the arts; for instance, in painting, to resist the action of water, or for cementing such objects as are destined to remain in water. Zinc oxychloride, ZnCl2,3ZnO,2H2O (= Zn2OCl2,2ZnH2O2), is also formed from a solution of zinc chloride by the action of a small quantity of ammonia on it after heating the precipitate obtained with the liquid for a considerable time; the admixture of ammonium salts with a mixture of a strong solution of zinc chloride with its oxide makes a similar mass, which does not solidify so rapidly, and is therefore more useful for some purposes. Moisture and cold do not change the hardened mass of oxychloride, and it also resists the action of many acids, and a temperature of 300°, which makes it a useful cement for many purposes. A solution of magnesium chloride with magnesium oxide forms a similar oxychloride. The mass solidifies best when there are equal quantities by weight of zinc in the chloride and oxide, and therefore when it has the composition Zn2OCl2 In preparing such a cement, naturally zinc oxide alone may be taken, and the requisite quantity of hydrochloric acid added to it. The capacity of ZnCl2 to combine with water, ZnO, and HCl (and also with other metallic chlorides) indicates its property to combine with molecules of other substances, and therefore its compounds with NH3, and especially a compound, ZnCl22NH3, similar to sal-ammoniac, might be expected (i.e. 2NH4Cl, in which H2 is replaced by Zn). And indeed it has long been known that ZnCl2 absorbs ammonia and gives solid substances capable of dissociating with the disengagement of NH3. Among these compounds Isambert and V. Kouriloff (1894) obtained ZnCl26NH3, ZnCl24NH3, ZnCl22NH3, and ZnCl2NH3. The dissociation tension of the two last-mentioned compounds at 218° is equal to 43·6 mm. and 6·7 mm. CdCl2 also forms similar compounds with NH3 (Kouriloff, 1894).