Recommended Baccalaureate Competencies and Curricular Guidelines for the Nursing Care of Older Adults: A Supplement to The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice September 2010.
Zinc is a chemical element with symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. In some respects zinc is chemically similar to magnesium: both elements exhibit only one normal oxidation state (+2), and the Zn2+ and Mg2+ ions are of similar size. Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in Earth's crust and has five stable isotopes.
On the periodic table of elements, zinc is identified with the symbol Zn, and the metal has an atomic number of 30. Humans have been using zinc for thousands of years; the element was used extensively in India in particular. Around the 1500s, it began to be imported into Europe, where it was a costly and unusual metal.