Course:VANT149/2025/Capstone/Science/Team20

Abstract

This experiment aims to investigate the effect of salt concentration in water on the rate of rusting of iron products.  The experiment set up four groups of saltwater solutions with different concentrations: 0%, 1%, 5% and 10%.  Iron sheets of the exact specification were respectively immersed in the solutions of each group, and the rusting changes were observed under the same environmental conditions.  Through observation and recording within a fixed period, the degree of rusting of each group of iron sheets was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed.  It was found that the presence of salt significantly accelerated the rusting reaction of iron, but there was no linear relationship between the degree of rusting and the salt concentration.  Among them, the rusting of iron sheets in the 5% saltwater group was the most obvious.  In comparison, the degree of rusting in the 10% group slightly decreased instead, which might be related to the inhibition of oxygen dissolution by high-concentration salt or the formation of a salt crystal coating layer.  This experiment facilitates a deeper understanding of the complex influence mechanism of salt concentration on metal corrosion.

Biographies

Anson Chen is a first-year student in the Vantage One program at the University of British Columbia. He is passionate about mathematics, physics, and neuroscience, aiming to engage in related research in the future. He is focused on analyzing physics and chemistry data from experience and hopes to share some interests by the labs with other people.

Ziming Song is a first-year Vantage One Science student at UBC. His research focuses on how iron products rust in different concentrations of saltwater. He is personally interested in this topic because it connects chemistry with real-world environmental issues.

Zheshi Liu is a first-year student in the Vantage One Science program at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on investigating the effect of salt concentration on iron corrosion. He is personally interested in this topic because of its real-world applications in environmental science and infrastructure maintenance, particularly in coastal and industrial regions where corrosion can pose serious challenges.