Rusting Nails student experiment & research (cont'd)

! I am in the 10th grade. I have done my experiment and done research as well. This is my paper....please tell me if anything is wrong with it... Am I missing anything vital?... It can also help those who have questions on my topic...Please help me...i want to make sure that my paper is O.K.

Nail Corrosion
I. Introduction

Corrosion and rust is one of the problems that cost industries million of dollars every year. To prevent this costly dilemma companies must understand this natural process and how to impede it. To save money companies refrain from using pure metals. In fact there are not many metals found in their pure state one example of a pure metal would be gold. Most metals are mined as ores. Ores are oxides. (Hapeman.) When pulling the oxygen out of the ore, by applying plenty of energy and heat, it creates a pure metal. For example if heat and energy are applied to an iron ore or iron oxide it become iron. This chemical reaction is called reduction. Reduction is when a substance gains and electron. When a substance loses an electron this is called oxidation. When a metal, specifically iron, is able to recombine with oxygen it becomes an iron oxide or iron ore once again. When iron oxidizes, it corrodes in to the familiar brownish red color called rust. (Hapeman-) To simplify this, corrosion is an iron or metal attempting to return to into its original or natural sate. (Davis-) Most companies use iron to build bridges, building etc. Different types of iron they may use include, cast iron or wrought, and pig iron. Cast iron an iron alloy that contains 2-4% carbon, and 1-3% silicon. Wrought iron is practically a pure metal, which can resist corrosion more so than cast iron. Pig iron contains 93% iron and 3-4% carbon and a few other elements. (Knapp----)

Do nails rust differently in different types of liquids? How effective are coatings of glue and paint on nails against rust? The hypothesis is: If nails are put into water, then it will rust more so than if they are placed into vinegar. If a coating of nail polish or glue is applied to the nails then the nails will not rust as much as the nails without a protective coating. This hypothesis was stated because water and oxygen are needed for oxidation, oxidation is needed for corrosion or rust to begin. A coating of glue and nail polish can prevent the water from reaching the iron. To measure the amount of rust, each nail will be rated on the level of corrosion. The controls of the experiment are the nails without coating in water and vinegar. The independent variable is the coating on the nails. The dependent variable is how much rust is on the nails. The variables are the types of coatings, and the types of liquids. The constants of the experiment are the amount of nails in! each container, temperature, the amount of rust, the size of the containers, and the amount of time the nails stay in the containers.

II. Materials and Methods

Materials needed to use in this experiment are the following: 6 plastic containers, 24 nails, 100 ml of water in each container, 100 ml in each container, nail polish, and industrial strength glue. To conduct this experiment, paint four layers of nail polish on four nails. Then do the same on the next four nails with the industrial strength glue. Let all eight nails dry for five hours. Fill two containers with vinegar and two containers with water. Place two of the same nails in each container (ex. two nails with nail polish are in water and two nails with nail polish are in vinegar). The last two containers (one with vinegar one with water) are the controls; place two nails that do no have coatings on them in each container. This experiment was repeated in the same manner on a later date. In each trial the nails stayed in the containers for two weeks. III. Data Collection & Analysis

The independent variable is the coating on the nails. The dependent variable is the amount rust is on the nails. The coating on the nails did in fact prevent some rust, view the chart below for the results. Ratings on the nail quality scale are as follows: a) Rating of 4: Nail is intact, no rough edges, or any rust; the color of the nail is silver; b) Rating of 3: Nail is dull, some rough edges, some rust, less than 15% of the nail has rust; the color of the nail is gray and yellow; c) Rating of 2: The nail is mostly covered in rust, many rough edges, less than 75% of the nail is covered in rust, the color of the nail has some gray but mostly brown; Rating of d) 1: The nail is covered in rust, very rough, more that 75% of the nail is covered in rust; the color of the nail is dark brown. RAW DATA

Nail Quality

Nail #1 Nail#2 Nail#3 Nail#4

Nails with nail polish in vinegar 4 4 4 4
Nail with nail polish in water 2.5 1.5 1.5 2.5
Nails with glue in vinegar 3.5 4 4 4
Nails with glue in water 3.5 3 2.5 3
Nails in vinegar 3.5 3.5 3 3.5
Nails in water 1 1 1 1

Nail Quality

Mode

Nails with nail polish in vinegar 4
Nail with nail polish in water 2.5
Nails with glue in vinegar 4
Nails with glue in water 3
Nails in vinegar 3.5
Nails in water 1

The data supports my hypothesis; coatings do help prevent corrosion. It shows that the best coating for a nail is glue. The nail polish was not as successful as the glue because the coating chipped away, more so in the vinegar than the water, this so because of the acidic nature of the vinegar. After the layer of nail polish had chipped away water was able to meet with the metal and the nails started to corrode. A thicker layer could have been used to effectively protect the nails. The data demonstrates that nails do in fact react differently in different types of liquids. Water, as my hypothesis stated, is the liquid that causes the most corrosion. When the nails are in vinegar, they either dull slightly or are perfectly intact. IV. Conclusion

The purpose of this experiment was to determine, what types of liquids cause corrosion and which types of coatings are able to prevent corrosion. This data can be very important to those companies who lose millions of dollars on corrosion, which can be prevented or slowed. The nails that were placed in water, whether they had a protective coating or not did corrode somewhat. The nails the corroded the most were the nails that were not protected in water. The nails that corroded the least were the nails with glue in vinegar and the nails with nail polish in vinegar. The research data supported the hypothesis that if nails are put into water, then it will rust more so than if they are placed into vinegar. If a coating of nail polish or glue is applied to the nails then the nails will not rust as much as the nails without a protective coating. Oxygen and water are vital ingredients for oxidation; both are needed for oxidation to take place, oxidation is needed for iron to corrode. This would explain why the nails without a protective layer in water rusted the most. This would also explain why the nails with stronger coatings had the most success, without water to the iron oxidation could not take place.

To better the experiment, more liquids could have been used such as salt water and bleach. More that two trials could give this experiment better accuracy. More nails could have been used. I could have also tested if putting on the lids of the containers affected the results. In this experiment I used tap water, tap water contains carbon dioxide, which can form a weak acid. I could have boiled the water to minimize its acidity.

A. Don't worry. I'm in the 6th grade too doing almost the exact same project. What I did for my research was just ask simple questions like what causes nails to corrode?,what prevents to corrode?, and others then research and answer them. Good luck on your project

A. I'm sure some one of you have looked into the matter of corrosion before beginning to investigate it. The process is sufficiently complex that inferences from experiments with "soda pops and vinegar" will be difficult or impossible without chemistry. Possibly, a basically new discovery could be made, but how would you recognize it? Initially, why not observe the behavior of metals or their ions in various solutions and from known chemistry infer the meaning of the observations. Then observe your original combinations and see how far you get...if a novel departure is necessary to explain an unusual result...to have something to follow up on.

A. Hi,

Yes they are right it depends on the nails. I was doing the same thing except I put Zinc roofing nail nails in: 140 ml water 140 ml water 10 drops vinegar 140 ml water 1 ml salt none rusted but the one in vinegar started to grow algae. I also used a regular steel nail that went berserk so now you have one type of nail that will work.

Have fun with the project.

A. Yes, Yingxin. In a circuit or electroplating tank the anode is the electrode which is positively charged. As a result, anions (negatively charged ions) are attracted to it. When water ionizes to hydrogen and oxygen, or hydrogen and hydroxide, the oxygen ions are negatively charged and are attracted to the anode, causing an oxygen reaction or oxidation.

Another way to look at it--which amounts to the same thing--is that electrons are pumped by the battery through the wire from the anode to the cathode, leaving an excess of electrons at the cathode and a deficit at the anode. The excess electrons at the cathode 'reduce' the ions that come in contact with it, while the theft of electrons at the anode causes a rise in valence state, or oxidation of any material there.

They may be trying to teach you a little too much too fast, with the iron nail project though. When an iron item is stressed in manufacturing, such as when a head is formed or a point is ground, the result is that the highly stressed areas become anodic to the lower stressed areas. This causes corrosion or oxidation at the stressed areas. At the points, the nail oxidizes, that is to say that the Fe becomes Fe⁺⁺ because electrons were removed from the iron atoms. The areas of lower stress, negatively charged, attract the ionized hydrogen from the water solution, leaving behind the OH^- thus raising the pH.

Good luck!

A. Don't "run out of time" on my account, folks :-)

There are hundreds of different student projects, and tens of thousands of students with each. I don't want to blow people off, but if I did nothing else 24/7 I could not begin to answer all the student questions that are submitted! So please consider these pages to be like Dear Abby or Hints from Heloise column where we post interesting letters, and if no student answers it, we may occasionally compose a response ourselves.

Margaret: your electrolysis experiment doesn't seem to really have much to do with electroplating, as you'll understand in a minute...

What happens in electroplating is that metals are dissolved (oxidized) into solution as positively charged ions at the positive pole (anode) as current is applied, and they are attracted to and migrate to the negative pole (cathode) where negative charges (electrons) neutralize them and "reduce" them back to metallic form. This is explained in our FAQ on the subject.

In order for electroplating to occur then, the metal must dissolve into solution at the anode and stay dissolved until those metal ions migrate to the cathode for reduction back to metal. But plain salt water (without acid or exotic chelating/complexing agents) cannot dissolve metal, it cannot keep metal in solution, so with no metal ions dissolved in solution, you can't electroplate any out -- electroplating cannot occur.

With no metal in solution, all that the electricity can do (and it does do) is separate the H2O water molecules into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. The excess electrons available at the cathode convert hydrogen ions in the water into hydrogen gas while the electrons pulled away from oxygen ions at the anode convert them to oxygen gas.

The black color that is on everything is what platers call 'smut' and it is largely comprised of very very fine particles. When particles are very fine, they appear black regardless of their natural color because the light hitting them doesn't bounce back towards the source but bounces off at a skew angle and gets diffused and absorbed. The particles may be metal precipitates caused by the attempt of the electricity to dissolve the metal at the anode but the salt water not keeping it in solution but letting it form tiny metal oxide particles instead.

2 D-cells, i.e. 3 volts, is plenty for electroplating for a science experiment. One D-cell, i.e., 1-1/2 volts is usually enough really. Six volts is too much and will cause smut even if you had vinegar or another acid in the solution.

The nickel should have been connected to the positive pole if you want it to ionize to a green color because things dissolve at the positive pole, not the negative pole. But I'm not confident you will get green rather than black anyway--you might possibly if things go well. If you want to try electroplating, the conditions described in the previously mentioned FAQ will work, I've done it.

I know it's very confusing and a lot to learn, but good luck to you and your daughter.

A. Well one thing is base liquids rust the nails slow and neutral medium and acid FAST! I really think that before you test make predictions.

A. Hello,

To all of you to whom this can help here's what I know.
I know that Dr. Pepper will not rust a nail I am in 7th grade and I am doing a project on which substance will rust nails faster water, vinegar, Windex [on eBay or Amazon] , or Dr.Pepper. It turned out that the water did the 1st most damage and the Windex did the 2nd most damage, the vinegar did the 3rd most damage and the Dr. Pepper did the least damage. So if any needs to know any of this here it is and I have a question it why do all of you even want to know all of this ?