[TheForge] Electolytic rust reclaiming

Tue Oct 29 13:02:01 2002

Although in principal, you could electrically reduce rust back to iron, in =
practice it is not likely to work this way.  If you ever succeeded in =
reducing the rust to iron, you'd have a layer of scaly iron on top of your =
steel - it would NOT be steel you got back, and the alloy composition =
could be anything and may depend upon the voltage applied.  The major =
obstacle to this happening is simple electrical conductivity - steel =
conducts, rust probably does not.  Hence the electrolytic reaction cannot =
occur in the rust because there is no electrical conduction to make it =
happen.=20

A rust to steel conversion would also require that the object be connected =
to the negative electrode.  I don't recall whether that's what's done or =
if the reverse is done.  I suspect it IS done, and the reaction proceeds =
just far enough to convert the layer of rust on the surface of the metal =
(not the surface of the object) back to iron, at which point all physical =
contact is lost to the rest of the rust, which then falls off.  That part =
is just speculation, however.

Bruce
NJ

>>> [email protected] 10/29/02 11:35AM >>>
Hi all...

   I asked a guy I know that is one of those people that remembers
everything he ever read and actually understands things in the more
abstract, "theoretical" way.  He's even good with his hands, though
not likely to ever make "flat rate".  So...this is what he said is
happening.

   When iron oxidizes it absorbs oxygen, as it does it "bubbles up"
leaving the rust and pits we are all familiar with.  He says that if
you controlled a rusting piece of iron so that none of the oxide is
lost, the final pile of iron oxide would weigh more than the original
piece of iron.  The electrolytic conversion removes the oxygen from
the iron oxide leaving it in it's original chemical composition.

   The bubbling up of the metal however is not changed, so now the
de-oxygenated metal is not as solid as it was, it retains it's
porosity.

   Anyone?

   Jeff   ><>

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