Metals and Corrosion Experiment - Lab Report Example

A metal is defined as a substance containing high electrical conductance, which has luster and is malleable.
The reaction of Iron III oxide with water in presence of air results in the formation of iron II oxides which are referred to as rust. This is an indication of corrosion in the given metal. This experiment’s main purpose is the determination the properties of metals and to find out the corrosive effect on metals.

Experimental
Metal Properties
The properties of the metals, iron, brass, and copper, were compared. This involved comparing the conductivity of both iron and copper, Hardiness, and brittleness. The observations were made and recorded. In testing for conductivity, the metals were heated, and the time taken to heat up was observed. In comparing for brittleness, the wires of the respective metals were bent, and the number of times the wire was bent before breaking was observed.

Data and Observations
Conductivity
After heating copper and iron to test for conductivity, copper became hotter faster as compared to iron. When comparing the conductivity of copper and brass, copper becomes hotter faster than brass.

Hardiness
A comparison of the hardiness between copper and iron resulted in iron being harder than copper. On comparing the hardiness between copper and brass, it was found that brass is harder than copper. Also, it was found that alloys of these metals are harder as compared to pure metals.

Brittleness
The number of times copper wire was bent before breaking was two. On the other hand, the number of times iron wire was bent before breaking was one.
Corrosion
After a corrosion test was done on all the substances, i.e. copper, brass, and iron, it was found that both copper and brass were corroded and copper was resistant to corrosion.

Discussion
Copper has a higher conductivity as compared to iron and brass. This is because copper contains a large number of delocalized electrons. These electrons move freely and as a result, facilitate the conductivity process.
From the experiment, it’s clear that iron is harder than copper. This is due to the strong covalent bonds which exist between the iron molecules making it to be harder than copper. Comparing the two pure metals with their alloys resulted in the alloys being harder than the metals. On brittleness, iron was found to be more brittle than copper.
Iron and brass were found to be easily corroded as compared to pure copper. This was due to the presence of iron III oxide which gets oxidized to iron II oxide, and this causes rust.

Finally, Copper was found to be corrosive resistant as compared to iron and brass. Read More