Metal Types and Corrosion
The deterioration of a material resulting from a chemical or electro-chemical reaction with its environment is known as corrosion. Corrosion is associated with metals that consist mostly of iron or ferrous alloys.
Certain environments tend to be more corrosive than others and this will affect the rate of corrosion. Likewise, a metal’s physical and chemical properties contribute to the rate at which it will rust, a product of corrosion consisting of various iron and hydrated iron oxides.
What metals are most corrosive? At the heart of why certain metals corrode is energy. The energy difference between metals and their ores can be expressed in electrical terms that are related to formation heats of the compounds. The difficulty of extracting metals from their ores in terms of the energy required, and the resulting tendency to release this energy by corrosion, is reflected by the relative positions of pure metals in a list.