Home made rust removers

We are aware that when iron is exposed to moisture and air for a long time,a brown flaky coating appears on its surface as rust.It is necessary to remove this rust quickly as otherwise it damages the object fast.This way many tools ,equipments like the cycle parts and cooking utensils become unusable.
 
 There are many rust removers which are available commercially.But they are expensive and always not easily available.

While working on our project on the various aspects of iron,we thought of researching on some home made rust removing recipes.Our joy knew no bounds when our experiments with some easily available materials at home could actually remove the rust .So we thought of sharing our knowledge through our blog so that many can be benefitted.Also the photos of our work will say it all.



Some of the materials that we used are --

1. citric acid
2vinegar
3 oxalic acid
4 vinegar and Al foil
5 potato slice
6 lemon juice



1 using citric acid--this  was tried by Somdeep Dutta of our project team.

citric acid is available at all grocery shops and is largely used to make 'paneer' at homes.A solution of this (about 2 teaspoons in 50ml of water) was made and some rusted nails were kept in it for 12 hours.
The solution turned brown gradually due to the rust coming out in the water.
The nails were removed and scraped off with a tooth brush.They b appeared shiny.(check the photos)

2 using vinegar-- this was done by Shakir Parwez of our project team.

Chemically,vinegar is dilute acetic acid.He brought a rusted plus from home and dipped it in vinegar.After 24 hours,the result was amazing.All the rust came out and the plus looked shiny on scraping with a toothbrush.The vinegar turned brown due to the rust coming out.See for yourself the images.

3 using oxalic acid---Ritesh Das(Ritz Happy Das, as per his gmail account) has sent the following rust removing recipe--

Requirements-

Oxalic acid, a rusted material( knife, pin,etc), bowl,brush.

Procedure-

ü  First, we have taken some water in a bowl.

ü  Then we mixed some amount of oxalic acid into it.

ü  The rusted item was put in the solution.

ü  The material was kept immersed in the solution till all the rust was removed from its surface. It was brushed time to time to know the extent of removal of rust. 

rusted object

in oxalic acid

rust is cleaned

4. Vinegar and Aluminium foil--This was tried by Arunjyoti Das and Swaroop Acharjee of our team.
Al foil was dipped in vinegar and the rusted objects,a nail and an iron ring, were rubbed strongly for some time.This helped in removing the rust , as is obvious from the pictures.
                                                       

objects with rust removed

rusted object being cleaned by Al foil




         

                                                   

rusted objects

5&6-- with lemon/potato and salt---This was tried by Aditya Roy of our team.

He rubbed a rusted nail with lemon and salt and could clean it.This works also with a cut potato instead of a lemon piece and is particularly good for removing rust stains from clothes.Look at the pictures.

rusted nail

                                   nail being rubbed with lemon                                                      

       

clean nail

7  using borax and lemon juice---This was tried by Somdeep Datta of our team.

He used borax and lemon juice to clean the rust and was quite successful though it took a little more time-about 2 to 3 days.See the pictures.

rusted nails

rusted nail being dipped in borax and lemon juice

clean nail