Metals and Water Essay example -- Iron, steel, Corrosion, Alkalinity

Certain metals could be pushed by the pH of piss. This, however, could rebound on real life situations that could affect us, the environment, and also our pipe dodge as well. Some metals much(prenominal) as iron and steel oxidate when they argon exposed to humidity and water thus forming corrosion cognize as ferric oxides (Roy, 2009). Corrosion has destructive potential if left untreated (Stahl, 2005). Knowing what metals are prone to corrosion is an important issue to pull in notice about beca purpose corrosion happens all around us including possessions that hold up to us. It is necessary for industrialized cities to estimate the cost of such devastating spirit of corrosion (Newman, 1994). Much of money are spend each course of instruction to replace equipment that are corroded, in the United States alone, corrosion causes about $276 gazillion each year. By using specific metals or methods such as alloying, metallic coating or organic coating can prevent or minimizing corrosion (Drigel, 2008). A specific type of corrosion is rust. Rusts are produced when iron converts to Fe 2+ ions and subsequently reacts with hydroxide ions within the water (Roy, 2009 and N/A, 2006). The physical characteristics of rust are coating of powder, scaly burnt sienna and reddish-yellow hydrated ferric oxides (Roy, 2009). The types of corrosion can be used in evaluating the performance of engineered structures (A reservoir to reduce rust, 2006). Metals are easily corroded in the sea because the salt makes the water a better conductor from the electrochemical cells (N/A, 2006). The ever-changing pH of the ocean due to planktic forminiferal abundance and other variables (Saraswat, 2007), and this could affect the rate of corrosion in metals. The pH is a measurement of the sulkiness or alkal... ...ltimately save many problems and health risks. It is important to note which metals to use to prevent corrosion because some may post health risks such as Chromium. Prolong ed contact with Chromium may lead to lung cancer, ulcers, liver-colored necrosis, and allergic dermatitis, so improper metals used in water distribution system could lead to a high extension in toll of risks because it could also affect the ocean and the wild lives (Chandra and Kulshreshtha, 2004). The world is changing and virgin technologies are emerging. Some of these technologies include micro-sized chips that are able to run a computer, and if corrosion is one of the problems, then it will post many more complications. Humans rely on technologies and equipment that are sometimes created with metals and they sometimes give off simply because they are exposed to salt water or high humidity (N/A, 2006).