How does rust work to eat away a metal?

Question

Where does rust come from? How does it begin to form and why only on certain metals?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Rust is iron oxide. It forms when other ions (often dissolved in water which is why water makes rust) react with the iron (it’s actually a somewhat complex reaction). There’s basically a tier list of metals and the higher up the list it is, the more it rusts. Iron is quite high up.