67Zn NMR investigation of zinc halides

67Zn NMR has been used as a probe to measure the electric field gradients at the metal site in the zinc halides ZnF2, γ-ZnCl2, ZnBr2 and ZnI2 and Rb2ZnCl4 at room temperature. In addition two hydration states have been detected for ZnSO4. For ZnF2 and γ-ZnCl2 an ab initio calculation of the electric field gradient at the Zn site using the Wien 97 code agrees well with the experimentally observed values.