Soyun Park

2018 Grade 9
Science
Ms. G. Buijsman
The Corrosion of Iron
Introduction
In class, we were introduced to the topic of chemistry and now focusing
on the corrosion of iron. What is corrosion? Corrosion is the chemical
deterioration of a material usually a metal. The most common causes
of corrosion are contact with water and oxygen, though other
substances in the earth can also cause corrosion. The rust is a reddish
or yellowish-brown flaky coating. It is made of iron and oxygen, forming
an iron (III) oxide. In chemical symbols, it can be represented as: Fe+O2
-> Fe2O3. (Balanced equation: 4Fe+3O2 -> 2Fe2O3). Water is the enabler
of fast oxidation of iron so freshwater will cause rust. However, salt
water is a very good conductor (lots of dissociated ions) and so there
are a number of electrolysis reactions that accelerate corrosion in salt
water. This report will discuss an experiment to study the relationship
between the amount of salt in distilled water and the amount of rust
formed since salt seems like it has a big effect on forming a corrosion
of iron nails when mixed with water.
Work Cited:
"Why Does Salt Water Make Metal Rust Faster?" Why Does Salt Water
Make Metal Rust Faster? N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
<http://questions.sci-toys.com/node/76>
Research Question
How does the amount of salt in distilled water affect the amount of rust
formed? Or in other words, I am going to investigate how the amount
of salt in distilled water affects the amount of rust formed.
Variables
Independent variable: Amount of salt in distilled water (mg)
measured with the milligram scale.
Dependent variable: Amount of rust formed (mg) the way to
measure is measuring the iron nail itself first and then measure it
again after the rust is formed using milligram scale to figure out
how much rust has formed.
Constant variables: Type of salt, amount of distilled water (ml),
size of the iron nails (mg), duration time of the experiment (3
days)

Hypothesis
I predict that if I increase the amount of salt in distilled water, the
amount of rust formed on iron nails will increase. The reason is that
the process of rusting involves electrons moving around, and electrons
move more easily in salt-water than they do in clean water. Science
proves that salt in the water speeds up the oxidation process by acting
as a catalyst, which is a substance increasing chemical reaction
without itself making any chemical changes/reactions. Also another
reason would be that salts remain even if the water is gone and they
start rusting again whenever they come in contact with moisture.
Scientists say that few hours or 1-2 days will be enough to form a rust
of iron nails in salt water. However, since my first test tube is going to
be with no salt at all, I am going to leave the experiment for 3 days.
My prediction is testable because I am going to be measuring the
difference of mass between the iron nail tested before putting in the
salt water and after, keeping them for 3 days throughout the entire
experiment even though there are going to be changes in the amount
of salt. I am doing 1 trial but experimenting all different amount of salt
to see the relationship between the amounts of salt I put and the
amount of rust formed. My first iron nail will be with no salt at all to see
the change more clearly. I am going to put stoppers on top of the test
tubes to avoid any changes or affects of evaporation of salt or water.
Work Cited:
"UCSB Science Line Sqtest." UCSB Science Line Sqtest. N.p., n.d. Web.
05 Feb. 2015.
<http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=552>
Materials
Salt (3000mg)
6 iron nails (measured in mg)
6 stoppers
Distilled water (60ml)
Writing utensils
Data table to record
Milligram scales
6 test tubes (15cm long)
Spoon to stir
Diagram

Method
<Safety Pre-cautions>
Make sure that you hold the upper part of iron nail so it does not
poke (or scratch) anyone else or even you.
Be careful not to dislodge any rust from the nail while measuring
the mass of nail after trial.
<Steps to follow>
1. Read and follow safety pre-cautions.
2. Clear a space and gather all the equipment and materials you
need.
3. Take an iron nail and weigh the nail accurately recording the
starting mass
4. Pour 10ml of water in all the six 20ml test tubes.
5. Place all 6 iron nails in each 20ml test tubes
6. Put 0mg of salt, 200mg, 400mg, 600mg, 800mg, 1,000mg
(measure with milligram scales) in order in the different test
tubes and stir.
7. Put stoppers in the test tubes to avoid evaporation of the salt or
water.
8. Wait for 3 days
9. Pull out the iron nails and measure it on milligram scale
10.
Pour the water out and wash the test beaker
11.
Record the measurements the mass of iron nail after the
trial in milligrams in the notes.
12.
Calculate the amount of rust formed by subtracting the
mass of original nail from the mass of the iron nail after the trial
13.
Clean up all the materials and equipment you used when
the experiment is done.
Data table
Experimen

Amount of

Mass of

Mass of

Amount of

salt (mg)

1
2
3
4
5
6

0
200
400
600
800
1000

iron nail in
mg
(BEFORE)

iron nail in
mg
(AFTER)

rust
formed
(mg)

Graph information
I am going to use the marked scatter plots and a linear line for the
graph to show my experiment visually. The x-axis will be the amount of
salt I put in the distilled water (mg) and the y-axis will be the amount
of rust formed (mg) in limited time (3 days). Marked scatter plots help
the graph readers to see the real measurements. The linear line
represents the relationship between the amount of salt in distilled
water and amount of rust formed. Since the marked scatter plots are
not always in an ordered position and spread away, it might look
messy. However the linear line helps to show what kind of relationships
the two different variables have (either positive, negative or none).

Soyun Park
2018 Grade 9
Science
Ms. G. Buijsman
The Corrosion of Iron
Table
<Table 1 all the raw data>

<Table 2 shortened table for graph>

Graph

Conclusion
Before I started the experiment, my hypothesis was: I predict that if I
increase the amount of salt in distilled water, the mass of rust formed
on iron nails will increase. By looking at the trend line on graph, my
hypothesis is accurate because it is clearly an ascending line. By
scientific reason, my hypothesis is accurate because the condition for
rusting has effect with how much salt you add. If salt is present in the
water, rusting happens quicker because the salt makes the water more
conductive and it allows the electrons to travel through the water
faster.
When I changed the independent variable, which is the amount of salt
in 10ml of distilled water, the dependent variable, which is the mass of
rust formed increased.
Looking through the table, when the amount of salt was 0.2g, the
total mass of 0.145g of rust has been formed. When the amount
of salt was 1g, total mass of rust formed was 0.281g. The mass
of rust formed increased by 0.136g.
It has clearly and successfully increased. However there were few poor
results.
In test tube no.2, the amount of salt was 0.2g and formed 0.145g
of rust. In test tube no.3, the mass of salt was 0.4g and formed
0.122g of rust. Even though the amount of salt from test tube
no.2 to no.3 has been increased, the mass of rust formed
decreased by 0.023g.
Another poor result like this happened in test tube no.3 and no.4.
In test tube no.3, the amount of salt was 0.4g and formed 0.122g
of rust. In test tube no.4, the amount of salt was 0.6g and formed
0.1g. Again, even though the amount of salt from test tube no.3
to no.4 has been increased, the mass of rust formed decreased
by 0.022g.
I believe that my evidence does support my hypothesis because it has
been clearly increased even looking at the graph. Also in general, the
mass of rust formed increased from test tube no.1 (the lowest amount
of salt 0g) to the test tube no.6 (the highest amount of salt 1g).
There were few errors and limitations but that will be discussed in the
evaluation section.
My experiment proves my hypothesis and the scientific fact that: when
the nail contacts with the water, it forms rust. It will be happened
quicker because of the salt because the salt in water allows the
electrons of salt to travel through the water faster. A balanced symbol
reaction for rusting is: 4Fe + 3O2 = 2Fe2O3. Oxidation also means the
loss of electrons. The iron loses electrons and the loss of electrons form
rusting.

Works Cited:
What Causes Rust? BBC News. BBC. n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/standard/chemistry/metals/corrosion/revision/
1/>
Evaluation
I believe that the methods I created for my lab was accurate and easy
to follow, because it was very detailed and had all the steps without
missing any. However I forgot to mention that we have to rub the
existing rust off the nail before the experiment because it can affect
the result. Some strength in the method was putting all the
measurements details like how much salt I am going to put and
everything. Another strength was that included all the calculations I
had to do, so I did not forget. I collected enough data for both graph
and table. However I had to create another clearer table because the
old one didnt have enough row/column to the amount of rust formed
in the solution, which should be conducted by filtering.
I believe that there are not enough data to answer my research
question, which was: How does the amount of salt in distilled water
affect the amount of rust formed? It is because I had odd results for the
third (0.4g of salt) and the fourth (0.6g of salt) test tubes that did not
flow well with other data. It could have been better if I had more trials
so I can get more accurate results.
My data is not really reliable because I had few limitations such as:
The measurements. I used two different scales for measuring the
mass of rust formed before and after. I used the two decimal
scale for the before one to measure the mass of nail but I used
the three decimal scale for the after one to measure the mass of
rust formed in the nail and in the solution by filtering. Obviously
the three decimal scale has more accurate mass because the two
decimal scale could be rounded off by a little number. I believe
that it has affected the fact that I got a minus results for the
difference of mass of nail before and after. Another problem I
found was that the three decimal scale is very sensitive. Even
though some people talked in the lab environment, the number
reads on the scale has gone up and down. For the improvement,
we could possibly use three decimal scale throughout the whole
experiment in a quiet and closed area.
The test tubes. I did not aware that there are going to be some
rust formed left on the test tubes. I should have measured the
mass of test tube before the experiment because we were not
provided with the same mass of test tubes. So because of that, I
couldnt get the mass of rust formed on the test tube. That could

have affected the test tube number 3 and 4. There could have
such big mass of rust formed remained on the test tubes which
then there will be less odd results. For the further improvement,
we could have measured the test tube before the experiment to
get more accurate results.
The rust on nails. We were provided with some nail with rusts on.
We did rub it before the experiment to make the experiment
more accurate. However by lack of human ability, we couldnt
get all the rust rubbed out. The rust remained could have
affected the fact that the rust cant be produced more. For the
improvement, we could possibly provided with brand new nails
with no rust on.

The trend line has increased, however some points are further away
from the trend line. The points are scattered all over the graph. The
gap between the numbers is not that big, so I assume that the odd
results are from the number of limitations of the experiment. I suggest
having more trials next time even though it might take a while but
since we can get more accurate results that could fit the science
behind perfectly and minimalize the odd results. I also suggest having
those limitations I have mentioned fixed.
If I could continue this experiment, I would investigate the same result,
which is the mass of rust formed will be increased if the amount of salt
put in the 10ml of distilled water increased. The trend line on the graph
will go upwards continuously.
If I could do another experiment on corrosion and rusting, I want to try
to measure the mass of rust formed in different types of metals put in
the salt water. The metals could be lead, steel, iron, copper, tin and
aluminum. I could then find out which metal has the strongest reaction
to the salt water and it would be interesting to see the results. I will
make sure that there are very easy steps to follow, nicely organized
data table and more prepared to what is going to happen during the
experiment and to handle well when there are any obstacles.