Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
Can anyone suggest please how to get the pure metal wires like iron, steel, zinc, copper for my rust buster experiment. I am trying to find out which metal is more rust resistant but all metals available in the hardware store are either galvanized or have some kind of coating on it. So it is hard to find pure metal. Also, I want to know how much time should I keep the metal for in the water to see the rusting? Are 10 days enough?

Thanks,

Hamza

Hello Hamza,

I did a little online searching and was able to find uncoated zinc and copper wire at the following links.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c ... Caps%2C166

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c ... opper+wire

You may be able to use coated wire if you can strip the coating away so that you have bare metal.

I don’t know how long the metals should be kept in water to see the rusting. How are you testing for rust? Why not look at your wire samples in water say, one a day and record your test results (or what you see)? That way you could track how long it takes for the rust to appear.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman