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Can steel be dissolved or rusted this quickly?

November 10, 2011

I'd like to know if there is a chemical that can either dissolve and eat through quarter inch steel, or if it could be oxidized fast enough to go all the way through it, if not immediately, then in a matter of a weeks?

Charles Hanson
restorer - Washington DC

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November 10, 2011

Hi, Charles.

First a word of caution. If people don't know enough chemistry to know the answer already, they may not have had enough training in chemical safety to fool around with the stuff. But I'd say that the most aggressive practical acid will be HCl +H2O2. With the proviso explained below, I'd guess that it could probably cut a hole though 1/4" steel in something like an hour.

Here's the proviso and where sci-fi movies will mislead you. When acid reacts with a metal, the acid is consumed in the reaction:

2HCl + Fe => H2 + FeCl2

So when you see a movie where a few drops of acid burn through a thick steel plate, the biggest fiction is not the accelerated speed, it's the small quantity of acid. Those few drops will be completely consumed in the reaction before they have penetrated far into the steel.

So, to burn a hole through a 1/4" plate, you'll need a pretty good quantity of acid. If you were to have a cup with a small hole in the bottom that you could place over the steel plate with some sort of o-ring configuation, yes, I think you could eat a hole through it in a practical amount of time. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Thanks so much for the information, Ted. It's really encouraging and can't wait to try it, hopefully as safely as possible.

What concentrations and mixture of HCl and H2O2 would you suggest, that would be available to a consumer?

And instead of a steady supply of drops on the metal, since the steel is hanging vertically, would a spray of the solution
on the metal every day obtain the same effect, but more slowly?

Thanks again.

Charles Hanson
- Washington, DC USA
First of two simultaneous responses -- November 10, 2011

An oxy/acetylene torch provides instant oxidation and an immediate hole in 1/4" steel

Bob Welters
- Seattle, Washington, USA
Second of two simultaneous responses -- November 11, 2011