Magnesium, zinc and chloride are essential minerals that your body needs in minute amounts to function normally. However, if magnesium or zinc combines with chloride, it becomes a different compound that behaves very differently from its original form. Magnesium chloride and zinc chloride are both used in the medical, culinary and production industries.
Function
Your body needs zinc, magnesium and chloride to perform various metabolic and nervous functions. Zinc functions as a catalyst for more than 100 enzymes for digestion, provides structure for proteins and cell membranes and regulates gene expression, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. Magnesium helps to produce energy by binding itself to ATP -- a high, energy compound that all cells need -- and provides structure to your bones and cell membranes. Chloride is a single chlorine ion that has a negative charge and binds with sodium and potassium to help to conduct nerve impulses.
Compound Functions
Magnesium chloride and zinc chloride's properties are very different from their individual forms. According to chemistry professor Nivaldo Tro of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, magnesium chloride is a weak acid that state highway departments use to prevent ice from sticking to roads. Workers spray a magnesium chloride solution onto roads prior to the freezing winter months. Magnesium chloride is also used to coagulate foods, such as in the production of tofu.
Zinc chloride is a highly water-soluble compound that needs to be stored in a completely dry container to prevent it from dissolving and losing its properties. It is a corrosive agent that metalworkers use for getting rid of rust and other impurities on metals. It is also an ingredient in mouthwashes and other dental hygiene products.
Replacement Reactions
A single replacement reaction is where an element that is not bonded to any other element replaces itself with another element that is bonded to something, according to Chemistryland.com. This is a simple process that chemists use to form compounds to make other compounds. For example, two chloride ions from iron chloride break free from the iron atom and bind themselves to a zinc atom to form zinc chloride. The formula is Zn + FeCl2 --> Fe + ZnCl2.
In a double replacement reaction, two compounds exchange an element or compound to form new compounds. For example, magnesium hydroxide combines with two molecules of hydrochloric acids to form one molecule of magnesium chloride and two molecules of water. In this reaction, two chlorides break off from the hydrogen atoms and bind themselves to magnesium while the hydrate ions bind themselves to the hydrogen atoms. The formula is Mg(OH)2 + 2HCl --> MgCl2 + 2H2O.
Metal Reactions
You can create single replacement reactions between a magnesium metal and an aqueous solution of zinc chloride or a zinc metal and an aqueous solution of magnesium chloride. In either case, the chloride ions break off from their parent atom and bind the new atom, according to Professor Tro.
Warning
According to Tro, zinc chloride is corrosive to your skin, and you should avoid any contact with the compound without proper protection. Magnesium chloride is safe to handle, but do not ingest concentrated forms of this compound, since it will cause diarrhea.
References
- Chemistryland.com
- "Linus Pauling Institute"; Sodium (Chloride); February 2004
- "Perspective in Nutrition"; Gordon Wardlaw; 2002
- "Chemistry: A Molecular Approach"; Nivaldo Tro; 2008
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