Question

What is rusting? Give the equation for the formation of rust.

Answer 1

Hint: All the metals in nature undergo an oxidation process (loss of electrons) to get the stability. At the time of oxidation, the electrons donated by the metal are going to be accepted by the other atoms and they undergo reduction.

Complete answer:
- In the question it is asked to write about rusting and the chemical equation for the formation of the rust.
- First, we must know about the rusting.
- Rusting is the process of decay of metal in the presence of the electron acceptor.
- Generally, iron is the metal that easily undergoes oxidation (loss of electrons) and forms rust in the presence of moisture and oxygen.
- We can see the process of rusting in the form of chemical equations and it is as follows.
$$4Fe+3O_2+2x{H}_{2}O\to \underset{Rust}{2F{e}_2{O}_3.x{H}_{2}O}$$
- In the above chemical reaction, we can see how iron is getting rust.
- In the above chemical reaction iron is going to react with oxygen in the presence of ‘x’ moles of water and forms 2 moles of the ferric oxide (called as rust).
- In the above chemical reaction, the oxidation number of the Ferrous (II) is going to change from +2 to +3 and converts into ferric (+3).
- Means in the process of rusting ferrous is going to be converted into ferric.

Note:
All the metals have a property to undergo corrosion to get stability. In the process of corrosion, the metals are going to form a new product. In the new product the oxidation number of the metal is different when compared to the oxidation number of the metal in its pure form.