Bye Rust

Rusting is happened around our life every day, for example rusting of a nail, rusting of a silver plate, rusting of ours gate, and other. If rusting is happened, what do you do ? Throw it? Nowadays, everyone talk about recycle, if it is able to remove rust stain why don’t we try that ?


Rusting is a corrosion of iron. Iron is poor resistance to corrosion. Rusting is a type of redox reaction which means reaction that involves oxidation and reduction simultaneously. Water and oxygen play as a medium for iron to rust. Meanwhile, oxygen is a oxidising agent where reduction happened and iron acts as reducing agent where oxidation occur. Thus the overall equation is as follows:

2Fe (s) + O2 (g) + 2H2O (l) 2Fe(OH)2 (s).

Example of rusting

In fact we can prevent iron from rusting.
The common way we usually do are
1.paint

2. place a plastic

3.oil and greased are used in engine.

All these method is to form a protective layer on the surface of iron in order to prevent water and oxygen contact with the surface of iron.
The other method is about
1. alloying, such as our stainless steel. Stainless steel is composed of iron, carbon, nickel, and chromium. This made them resistance to corrosion compared to pure metal.

2.sacrificial metal by using the knowledge of reactivity of metal, thus more electropositive metal is attached to iron and as a . Normally this method is used for object that contact to the condition which speed up rusting, for example hulls of ship are attached to zinc.

In case rusting is stained on your fabric, sink, or others, we can find solution to remove the rust stain. We can try out some natural way to remove the stain before we try some anti-rust product.

1. Lemon juice has the acidic properties due to presence of citric acid. This acidic propertie is help to remove stain.

2. Vinegar can be used as well because of the acidic properties due to presence of acetic acid. Both citric acid and acetic acid are mild acid.

These mild acid are suitable in used with fabric that has rust stain. Besides that adding little of table salt with lemon juice, because table salt is function as an electrolyte. Then if needed, put your fabric under sun it helps to bleach your fabric, this is becuase of the pigment of solar energy can help to bleach to fabric.

While, rust stain on your car, heavy appliance do try out some strong acid but be careful because strong acid can corrode your skin for example oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is very strong concentration of acid that is toxic. It is usually added in anti-rust product.
Said Bye to Rust.

The link below shows the procedure to remove rust stain on your fabric.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUsTiKchfIc

Thanks to:
1. Raymond Chang, 2007, Chemistry, 10th edition, McGraw Hill, page 862-865.
2. Howcast, 2009, How to remove rust stains caused by rusting, [online] available from: [Accessed: 10/07/2010].
3. HowStuffWorks, Inc, 1998-2010, How to remove iron and rust stain, [online] available from: http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-remove-iron-and-rust-stains.htm [Accessed: 10/07/2010].

4. R.Nave, 2010, Corrosion, [online],http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/chemical/corrosion.html, , [Accessed: 10/07/2010].
5. Pirunku, 2010, Bye Bye, [online], http:// pirun.ku.ac.th/-b4744163/p2.html, [Accessed: 10/07/2010].