What metal rusts or corrodes the fastest?
Question by : What metal rusts or corrodes the fastest?
I’m doing an art project and one of my elements deals with metal and i would like to either rust or corrode the metal, but i only have 2 weeks. What metal would either rust or corrode the fastest in a little less then 2 weeks?
Best answer:
Answer by Colin
Only one metal rusts, and that is IRON. Corrode is a more general term applied to all metals. It is further complicated by the fact that PURE metals are rarely used in everyday life, but most metal objects are made of mixtures of metals called ALLOYS.
You have had very few answers as it will take a book to explain it all. Rusting or corroding are affected by many things … temperature, the metals involved, the size of the particles and what is doing the corroding.
a] temperature something like an acidic solution corrodes faster when warmer
b] metals involved a reactive metal like magnesium will corrode quicker than a relatively unreactive one like copper. Noble metals like gold don’t corrode at all!
c] particle size. An iron girder will take years to rust, but put some iron filings in a damp sink and you’ll see rust in a couple of hours
d] What is doing the corroding Acid will corrode quicker than water.
If you are doing Art, you can probably get Iron Wool. This will corrode quickly in less than 2 weeks if kept damp and is probably the most sensible suggestion I can give … you are hardly going to use a lump of say, potassium metal, in an art project.
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