goldberg - 11-7-2018 at 02:13
I know that there is topic about preparation of zinc dust but because it is 15 years old (if i counted correctly) i decided to start new thread, if
this is wrong decision i apologise in advance.
I need zinc dust but i have no commercial source of it, i looked for zinc based paints but they all contains some resins and other highly unwanted
things.
I'm thinking about something like that:
Prepare solution of water soluble zinc salt (let's say chloride) and/or make anode from metaliic zinc. For cathode use graphite or other metal (not
sure what would be best choice there). Then carry out electrolysis but with purposely very high current density to achieve poor quality layer. When
there will be enough metallic zinc precipitated on cathode reverse polarity and supply pulse of high voltage to break layer of zinc.
Then return to polarity that we started with and repeat process.
After everything i hope to find zinc dust on bottom of electrolytic cell. Does it make sense?
I heard some time ago about similar idea but for preparation of Al2O3.
It would be best if this zinc powder would as big as possible surface area, i heard somewhere that it is possible to achieve spongy layer of zinc on
cathode.
Other ideas are also welcome.
CobaltChloride - 11-7-2018 at 03:18
There's actually this video by nurdrage which shows zinc dust can be easily made by electrolysis of a solution of sodium zincate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X9c6epL7HQ
Electrolysis of the two most common salts of zinc, ZnCl2 and ZnSO4 poses a few problems:
-the solution would be highly corrosive to most metals, so choosing anode material would be hard
-the electrolysis of ZnCl2 makes Cl2 (obviously) and that is hard to deal with
goldberg - 11-7-2018 at 03:28
Thanks for quick response 
How about using zinc metal for anode that would be consumed and add even more zinc to solution?
Or graphite?
Sodium zincate sound like intresting idea.
Production of Cl2 is a problem, but how about making electrolysis in closed containter with two holes one for air input and second connected
to wash bottle filled with solution of NaOH and apply suction? Chlorine would react with NaOH giving sodium hypochlorite that is not a big problem.
This will complicate setup but does not seem like a huge problem