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0 pointsrsync2y ago0 comments

"Out of curiosity, does electron flow influence oxidation speed at all?"

Oxidation (and reduction) are literally electron flows.

Oxidation is a loss of electrons and reduction is a gain of electrons.

Since the oxidizing material is the anode in this (oxidation "circuit") you can connect a "sacrificial anode" to the material you want to preserve and the electrons will flow from that instead of the (material you want to save).

We have sacrificial anodes connected to our underground propane tank:

http://www.pettank.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/cathode-pr...

... which means a bag of magnesium does all the rusting instead of the tank they are connected to.

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ethbr02y ago

My understanding was that the speed of the reaction was dependent on temperature (and probably pressure/gas mix), and the electron flow was a byproduct rather than driver of the chemical reaction.

But it seems like you can indeed block the reaction from occuring by saturating the surface with enough electrons (i.e. by applying an appropriate amount of current) that it makes oxidation impossible from an electrochemical standpoint.

https://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/1237/impressed-cur...

(In addition to the more common, passive bolt-on-a-sacrifical-cathode method)

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