Is there a level of decomposition after rust? Or is there any way (either naturally or through processing) to return rusted iron to a deoxidized state?

Question

From my understanding, iron veins in mines are spotted by their bright red color due to rust on the exposed surface. Then when it’s refined, the rust separates as slag and is discarded, leaving the pure iron behind.

Is this accurate? Or does the refining process deoxidize iron while separating impurities?

In: 16

Answer 1

The smelting process for iron is essentially that. You melt the ore (not the same as pure iron), the molten state and heat will make it so that the unwanted elements like oxygen, etc. either end up as a gas, react with something else like carbon in the case of oxygen or separate out as slag.

EDIT: As for is there a level of decomposition after rust? Not really. You have different oxides possible like FeO, Fe2O3, and Fe3O4. There are also other minerals that have iron in them, but aren’t solely iron and oxygen. Iron oxide is usually what you’ll get when iron and steel rusts, but in nature, you can find other compounds with iron in them that formed at different temperature and pressure conditions.

I wouldn’t call it decomposition. It’s more that the iron is reacting with something and losing the properties of the original material.