Question

Calculate the corrosion rate of a copper wire of diameter 0.5 cm and length 20 cm when immersed in a solution containing 1M HCl for 24 hours. The initial and final weights of the wire were 6.0 g and 5.6 g, respectively. The density of copper is 8.96 g/cm³. What is the corrosion rate of the copper wire in mm/year?

Answer 1

To calculate the corrosion rate of the copper wire, we first need to determine the volume of the corroded copper and then convert it to a depth of corrosion. 1. Calculate the mass of the corroded copper:Initial weight - Final weight = 6.0 g - 5.6 g = 0.4 g2. Calculate the volume of the corroded copper:Volume = Mass / Density = 0.4 g / 8.96 g/cm  0.0446 cm3. Calculate the surface area of the copper wire:Diameter = 0.5 cmRadius = Diameter / 2 = 0.5 cm / 2 = 0.25 cmLength = 20 cmSurface area = 2 * Radius * Length = 2 * 0.25 cm * 20 cm  31.42 cm4. Calculate the depth of corrosion:Depth = Volume / Surface area = 0.0446 cm / 31.42 cm  0.00142 cm5. Convert the depth of corrosion to mm:Depth = 0.00142 cm * 10 mm/cm  0.0142 mm6. Calculate the corrosion rate in mm/year:Since the corrosion occurred over 24 hours, we need to convert this to a yearly rate.Corrosion rate = Depth / Time = 0.0142 mm / 24 hours * 365 days/year  0.2149 mm/yearThe corrosion rate of the copper wire in the 1M HCl solution is approximately 0.215 mm/year.