Anhydrous  can be prepared from zinc and hydrogen chloride gas at 700 °C:
Aqueous solutions may be readily prepared similarly by treating Zn metal, zinc carbonate, zinc oxide, and zinc sulfide with hydrochloric acid:
Hydrates can be produced by evaporation of an aqueous solution of zinc chloride. Different evaporation temperatures produce different hydrates; for example, evaporation at room temperature produces the 1.33-hydrate. Lower evaporation temperatures produce higher hydrates.
Commercial samples of zinc chloride typically contain water and products from hydrolysis as impurities. Such samples may be purified by recrystallization from hot dioxane. Anhydrous samples can be purified by sublimation in a stream of hydrogen chloride gas, followed by heating the sublimate to 400 °C in a stream of dry nitrogen gas. Finally, the simplest method relies on treating the zinc chloride with thionyl chloride.