Welcome to brainstuff front House, stuff works dot Com, where smart happens by a Marshall brain with today's question how does rust work? Rust is the name that we use for a very common compound iron oxide. Iron oxide, the chemical F E two O three is common because iron combines very readily with oxygen, so readily, in fact, that
pure iron is only rarely found in nature. Iron or steel rusting is an example of corrosion, an electrochemical process involving an anode, or a piece of metal that readily gives up electrons, an electrolyte, a liquid that helps electrons move, and a cathode a piece of metal that readily accepts electrons. For iron to become iron oxide. Therefore, three things are acquired iron, water, and oxygen. Here's what happens when the three get together. When a drop of water hits an
iron object, two things begin to happen almost immediately. First, the water, a good electrolyte, combines with carbon dioxide in the air to form weak carbonic acid and even better electrolyte. As the acid is formed and the iron dissolved, some of the water will begin to break down into its component pieces, hydrogen and oxygen. The free oxygen and dissolved iron bond into iron oxide in a process that frees electrons.
The electrons liberated from the anode portion of the iron flow to the cathode, which may be a piece of metal less electrically reactive than iron, or another point on the piece of iron itself. The chemical compounds found in liquids like acid rains, seawater, and salt loaded spray from snow belt roads make them better electrolyte. It's the pure water allowing their presence to speed the process of rusting on iron and other forms of corrosion on other metals.
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