Help on Iron Rusting Project

[THwang]

My project is on how acidity (pH level) affects the rusting of iron. Originally I wanted to do the volume of rust on the iron screws I'll be using to conduct my experiment (Taking pictures each day to show the progress), but instead I wanted to use temperature (exothermic energy from the chemical reaction.) Is this okay? If not, is there any better kind of measurement?

[jmehta14]

Hi Thwang,
I think look up www. sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/Chemistry. I t has a similar experiment like yours and taht would be useful to you.
Jay.

[ChiaraB]

Hello THwang,

For your specific topic, I think that taking pictures of the rusted nails is a great way to qualitatively measure their corrosion, and you should include this in your project. Since you seem to be looking for a quantitative measure, I would suggest finding the mass of the rust by massing the original nail, then once it is rusted, brushing off the rust and massing it again. This article describes how:http://www.ehow.com/how_8582481_measure-rust.html Finding the amount of energy released is also a quantitative measure, but since rusting happens so slowly, it would be difficult to measure the temperature of the reaction.
I hope this helps, good luck on your project!

[donnahardy2]

Hi THwang,

This is a really great project idea. Jay and ChiaraB have given you some good advice for investigating the rusting of iron, and I have some additional advice that might be helpful.

There is a new project idea on this website that does use temperature to measure rusting in different pH solutions. The procedure does require insulating the sample and you do have to work very quickly so you can measure the exothermic reaction. If you do this experiment, I recommend measuring the temperature over time, so you can make a graph of the total heat produced.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... #procedure

Here is another project that measures the amount of oxygen consumed due to iron corrosion.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... #procedure

There is also a colorimetric test kit available for measuring iron available.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... ml#summary

Any of these methods would give you the quantitative results you need for a science fair project.


Donna Hardy

[THwang]

Thank you for replying to my topic for help.

One more question: Does the quantity of the liquids affect the rusting rate? To keep the experiment more controlled, each type of liquid will have the same quantity (mL), but I want to make sure.

[donnahardy2]

Hi THwang,

The total volume of liquid should not affect the rate of corrosion. , However, you are correct; the volume should be one of your controlled variables in this experiment.

Donna Hardy