Zinc sulfate is acidic? why?

[YannY]

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Hey, today i did a prac, zinc sulfate turned out to acidic, i thought it was basic and right now im certain that it is acidic but dont know why.

can someone explain?

[brenton1987]

Originally Posted by YannY

Hey, today i did a prac, zinc sulfate turned out to acidic, i thought it was basic and right now im certain that it is acidic but dont know why.
can someone explain?

How was the zinc sulfate prepared?

Adding zinc powder to sulfuric acid produces hydrogen gas and zinc sulfate. Excess sulfuric acid will result in acidic zinc sulfate.
Adding zinc powder to copper sulfate solution will produce an acidic Zn sulfate if the copper sulfate was made in excess sulfuric acid. Remember that the copper will be reduced to the metal and will precipitate.

The purist of zinc sulfate in the purist of water should be pH 7.

[YannY]

i dunno how it was produced because the science lab teachers did it. We just had to test it with an universal indicator and that obtained a lightish brown colour which was around a pH of 4 i think.

However, I shall ask my teachers, thanks for the reply.

[Red-Ink-Frenzy]

Zinc oxide is amphoteric (acidic or basic), so it would depend on how it was produced.