[1] The anhydrous material can be produced by dehydration of the dihydrate with hot CO2 or by reaction of zinc metal and bromine.

[5] Zinc bromide is mainly used in servicing oil and natural gas wells, solutions of zinc bromide are used to displace drilling mud when transitioning from the drilling phase to the completion phase or in well workover operations.

The extremely dense brine solution gives the fluid its weight of 20 pounds/gallon, which makes it especially useful in holding back flammable oil and gas particles in high pressure wells.

The space between two glass panes is filled with a strong aqueous solution of zinc bromide with a very high density, to be used as a window on a hot cell.

The advantage of an aqueous salt solution is that any radiation damage will last less than a millisecond, so the shield will undergo self-repair.