Metals are often coated with a layer of zinc to prevent corrosion. Items that have been galvanized will not corrode as easily and will last much longer. Examples of galvanized items include metal buckets, pipes, and gutters. In this lab, we will attempt to remove the galvanized zinc coating from the surface of a metal and calculate the thickness of this zinc layer of atoms. The thickness of the zinc coating can be determined from (1) the mass of the metal before and after acid treatment and (2) the density of zinc.

Purpose: To measure the thickness of zinc coating on a piece of galvanized metal.

Materials: Galvanized metal piece, 10 mL of 6M hydrochloric acid, 100 mL beaker, Balance, Ruler, 10 mL graduated cylinder

Your download will include a lab that is ready to be copied and passed out to your students. It will include title, purpose, introduction, safety precautions, procedure, data table, follow up questions, and teacher preparation notes. I am including student data pages if you prefer to use these rather than have students write their own lab report.

You will receive both an editable Word document as well as a pdf form of the lab.

Answers are included. Thanks for looking!

(For search word purposes: density, atoms, molecules, atomic structure, metric conversions, mass, volume.)

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