Year 10 Textbook

St. Mary’s College Science Department
Year 10 Science
Method… Rusting of Iron (continued)
6. Record your results in a table like the one below…
Boiling
Tube
A
B
C
Conditions (set-up)
Tap water covering half
of nails
Boiled water covering
nails with layer of oil on
top of water
No water and powdered
calcium Chloride
present
Conditions
(Presence of
water/Air)
Water and air
present
Water but no air
Air but no water
Description of
nail after 1 week
You should have noticed that the nails needed both air and water present in
order for the iron in them to ‘react’ with Oxygen and become ‘oxidised’.
The actual reaction that took place when the nails rusted was as follows…
Iron + Oxygen Iron Oxide
This is called a ‘Word Equation’ and is used to state the reactants (the
substances which reacted together) and the products (the new substances that
were made).
Preventing iron from rusting
Iron is a very strong material which is useful for buildings and other
structures such as bridges and even parts of cars and lorries. However, when
it rusts it ‘changes’ into Iron Oxide which is not so useful – Iron Oxide is
flaky and weak.
So it is important sometimes to stop iron from rusting in the first place – to
do this we simply have to keep the Oxygen in the air and water away from it.
There are several ways of doing this.
You should carry out some research to find out 4 ways of preventing rusting.
Then decide which way would be best for preventing the rusting of…
Bicycle chain Iron fence Iron water taps Body of a car
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