Question

What is a chemical equation for the corrosion of metal

Answer 1

`M+e^-\rightarrow M^+`

Step-by-step explanation:

Hello!

In this case, since corrosion is a reaction by which a metal is oxidized to a form in which it has a higher oxidation state due to the fact that it loses electrons and therefore it becomes positively charged. In such a way, for a general metal M, we could have the following corrosion reaction:

`M+e^-\rightarrow M^+`

The amount of electrons and the resulting oxidation state depend upon the nature of the metal, for instance, we can see it for silver, zinc and aluminum:

`Ag+e^-\rightarrow Ag^+\\\\Zn+2e^-\rightarrow Zn^(2+)\\\\Al+3e^-\rightarrow Al^(3+)`

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