gutfelt wrote:
It's an acid that chemically changes the rust back into metal.
now that I gotta see to believe lol
Phosphoric acid--it changes the rust not back into pure metal, but into another chemical compound (Ferric phosphate) that is relatively inert:
Fe2O3 + 2H3PO4 --> 2FePO4 + 3H2O
This basic process has been around and used for quite a long time.
It certainly is possible to strip the oxygen from rust and end up with elemental iron, but it generally involves a good amount of heat and some sort of a reducing environment (generally by introducing carbon in some form, though aluminum is used in the thermite reaction). This is what smelting amounts to, after all.
