How different acidity levels

affect the rate of

corrosion?

Rokhiya Ngom & My Nguyen

Introduction

Rust is a common example of corrosion and is a part

of our everyday lives. A lot of materials that we use
today are made of steel such as cars, bridges, and
roofs. When these objects are unprotected and
exposed to water, they start rusting. When this
chemical reaction occurs between metal atoms and
oxygen to form an oxide coat, heat is given off,
indicating an exothermic reaction.
Purpose
We investigated how acids affect the rate of corrosion when comparing
rusting in a model of normal rainwater and three models of acid rain using
American beverages. These fruit drinks often contain citric acid as one of the
main ingredients. Rainwater, on the other hand, depends on how low the pH
is, which means the higher the acidity nature of the rain. Normal rain is
slightly acidic because weak carbonic acid is formed by carbon dioxide
dissolving into the water. Consequently, this would lower the pH value
around 5.6.
Hypothesis

First Hypothesis: Soaking steel wool pads in acidic environment will make
the corrosion process occur, indicated by the rise in temperature
Second Hypothesis: The more acidic of a liquid, the faster the rate of
corrosion, causing more heat to be given off.
We used liquids with various pHs and anticipated that since Sobe is the most
acidic juice then it would cause the steel wool to corrode more and at a
faster rate.
Fruit Drinks pH (Standard Deviation)

Sobe Blue and Black Berry 2.69 (0.00)

Gatorade Orange Juice 2.99 (0.00)

Minute Maid Orange Juice 3.82 (0.01)

Data retrieved from Reddy, A., Norris, D. F., Momeni, S. S., Waldo, B., & Ruby, J. D. (2016). The pH of
beverages in the United States. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 147(4), 255-263.
What are the products for this experiment?
2Fe (s) + 2C6H8O7 (aq) → 2FeC6H5O7 (aq) + 3H2 (g)
(citric acid) (iron (III) citrate)

Fe (s) + C6H8O7 (aq) →

(citric acid)
Procedure
● Prepare 8 (1x2 inch) steel wool
strips.
● Soak it for a minute in the desired
liquid.
● Once done, squeeze excess liquid
and immediately thread it on
temperature probe with the rubber
stopper.
● Wrap the test tube with the
temperature probe around a towel
(used as heat isolation) and place it in a
beaker.
● Once the steel wool is in the
temperature probe, start collecting on
Logger Pro
● Record the temperature for 15 minutes
Variables

Independent Variables: Time and various juices (Sobe, Gatorade,

Minute Maid)

Dependent Variable: Temperature

Control Variable: Steel wool and rain water

 Fruit Drinks Observations
● Before: Grey is the original color
● After: Some tiny parts of the steel
wool change into a light yellow
● Turned hard
● Had an acrid smell
Rain Water Observations
● Before: Grey is the original color
● After: No change in color
● Same form and texture as before
put in water
● Had no smell
 Data Analysis
Sobe Gatorade Minute Maid Rain water
Rate of change (oC/min) 0.1065 0.2184 0.0679 -0.075
R² 0.8238 0.9744 0.9966 0.969
Highest Temp (oC) 26.285 26.680 23.092 24.788
Smallest Temp (oC) 24.184 23.388 22.171 23.732
Range (oC) 2.101 3.292 0.921 1.056
St.dev (oC) 0.559 1.053 0.324 0.363

● The temperature of the wools did increase after putting in fruit drinks for 15 minutes

● Steel wool in Gatorade had the highest rate of change and largest range in
temperature.

● Temperature of steel wool in rain water showed a small decrease over the time.

● Experiment with Minute Maid was the most accurate. (highest R² and smallest standard
deviation)
Conclusion and Discussion

Our first hypothesis was supported as the temperature did experience a rise of
temperature, small color change and hardened texture after soaking steel wool
pads in various juice drinks during 15 minutes. This is because all of the juices we
used contain citric acid, which reacted with iron to form iron (III) citrate,
hydrogen gas and released heat to the surrounding. Model of rain water, in
contrast, showed a small decline in temperature and no color or texture change.

=> The results are in a good agreement with the first hypothesis

However, steel wool had the highest rate of corrosion when putting in Gatorade
Orange Juice although it had the second highest pH level.

=> The second hypothesis that the higher the acidic level, the larger the rate of
corrosion was not supported.
Factors that could have affected our results

• The initial room temperature was not taken.

• The stopper is not closed and the isolation of the test tube is not good enough
=> heat released to the surrounding
• The steel wool weren’t soaked hard or long enough.
• We may not transfer the steel wool immediately into the test tube after soaking it =>
some amount of heat already lost to the surrounding when temperature was first taken.
• Small number of trials
How could we improve our
experiment?
References

1. Science Buddies Staff. (2017, December 16). Rusting Out: How Acids Affect the Rate of
Corrosion. Retrieved April 1, 2018 from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-
projects/project-ideas/Chem_p079/chemistry/how-acids-affect-the-rate-of-corrosion
2. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (n.d.). What is Acid Rain? Retrieved March
28, 2018, from https://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what-acid-rain
3. Reddy, A., Norris, D. F., Momeni, S. S., Waldo, B., & Ruby, J. D. (2016). The pH of beverages
in the United States. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 147(4), 255-263.
4. Wikipedia contributors. (2018, March 27). Acid rain. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Retrieved April 1, 2018,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acid_rain&oldid=832777548
5. Wikipedia contributors. (2018, March 22). Rust. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved,
April 1, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rust&oldid=831891465
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