If a piece of metal rusts before we can protect it or recycle it, do we lose it forever?
Would a piece of metal just rust away to nothing if just left outside?
What is the chemical change from [insert metal] to rust?
In: Chemistry
**Quote:** “Matter can’t be created or destroyed, they can only transform”.
**ELI16 on chemistry class:** As its not a radioactive reaction, its not fusion or phision, the atoms nuclei stays the same. They might lose electrons and change valences, but they can win new ones and change back.
There are fancy ways to remove the oxygen from the metal, but is generally expensive or not needed and gives a bad result (it won’t have the same size of the original piece), as you can just pulish the metal (only the pure metal in contact with air becomes rust) or create a new piece and give it an anti rush bath/make it with anti rust materials if the size of the piece is important.
**Now, with the real ELI5:** Pure metal links with the oxygen of the air and creates rust. Rust is the matal and oxygen combined, all the metal atoms are still there.
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