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Q&As since 1989
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Will nail polish prevent rust?
Q. Hi!
I am having a Science Fair coming up in about a month. I am a little stuck! I thought maybe you can help me! My purpose of the report is to find out which household items can prevent rust?, I am going the coat 4 nails in nail polish, motor oil, cooking spray, and glue. I will then let it sit in a cup of water for 5 days. I need to start writing the rough draft and I don't have enough info. for it. the results were the nail that was coated in nail polish did not rust. I need to find out why? perhaps there is a special ingredient in the nail polish which doesn't allow it to rust. I don't know I can't find out why? please help me find out!
THANK YOU!
Student - Passaic, New Jersey, America
2004
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A. To have rust, you need iron, moisture and oxygen. When you painted the nail, you kept the moisture and the oxygen from getting to the iron, thus no rust. James Watts- Navarre, Florida 2004 A. Consider this: Rust is oxidation. You need contact with an electrolyte to rust. You did what with the nail polish to the nail? Did the nail polish stay on the nail when it was in the water?  James Totter, CEF - Tallahassee, Florida 2004 |
Q. Me and some peers are doing a science fair project to see which household projects can prevent rusting, and we are stuck because the teacher asked us to do some research on why nail polish prevents rusting. We are trying to find out what is it that nail polish has that it can prevent rusting and why?
Vanesa Marinstudent - Houston, Texas, United Sates
November 16, 2018
A. Hi Vanesa. It's not about a magic ingredient; as James & James explained, it's about putting a coating on the object which discourages water and oxygen from reaching the iron/steel. If you painted the object the result would be similar.Fingernail polish is just probably more available for your experiment.
It's not terribly different from putting your nail or other object into a Zip-loc plastic bag, or sealing it up real good with scotch tape before submerging it ... if you keep the air and water away from the object, it's not going to rust.
But you can certainly research nail polish to understand what is in it. As theacetone [on eBay or Amazon] solvent evaporates, it leaves a pretty watertight coating on the object.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 2018
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