Asked in Home & GardenChemistryElements and Compounds
Home & Garden
Chemistry
Elements and Compounds
Does aluminum rust?
Answer

Wiki User
March 08, 2011 12:56AM
No. However, it does corrode. Corrosion often results from salts and contaminants which leach into the aluminum (oxide) surface. Anodizing is a way of putting an artificial oxide coating on the aluminum. This coating is then often dyed and sealed to protect it. Protected aluminum is pretty good stuff and doesn't corrode if given a little bit of care. Natural aluminum also develops the same sort of coating (which is clear so it is hard to see), but it is more porous and fragile compared to anodized coatings.
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Why does aluminum not rust?

Aluminum
Rust is the process that ferric metals, those based on iron,
oxidize, or combine with oxygen. Aluminum is not a ferric metal, so
it won't rust. But it will oxidize, which results in a skin of
aluminum oxide coating the metal, which protects it from further
oxidation. This is why an aluminum can will take 10,000 years to
disintegrate.
Answer
Technically, it corrodes. Aluminum oxide is white and coats
aluminum making it less bright. When aluminum starts to get a
little less bight, it has oxidized. It's just not called rust since
rust refers only to ferric metals.
By seb
It sort of does. Rusting is something iron does when it oxidizes.
Aluminum also oxidizes, it just gets white and crusty looking. It
finally oxidizes to the point of disappearing.
Asked in Science, Chemistry
Does aluminum foil remove rust?

Yes. In fact, aluminum oxidizes faster than almost any other
metal, which is why aluminum foil will, actually, remove rust: The
abrasion removes the coating of aluminum oxide that covers all
metallic aluminum exposed to the air, and the exposed aluminum
metal wants to be oxidized so badly that it will actually steal
oxygen from iron oxide, AKA rust, and reduce it back to iron metal.
Which is why aluminum foil will, in fact, remove rust. This
reaction, interestingly, is the same one that makes thermite
work.