Hi,

I was wondering how to make large quantities of Iron Oxide in a short time, could someone give me a detailed description on how to do it? A few places suggested electrolysis...is this the best way to do it?

thanks alot, JC

U really sound like making rust... spray some water on an iron rod and leave it inside a humid environment. It will rust  

Thanks, yeah I just wanted some rust for a experiment, at the moment I left some nails connected to a DC adapter in a jar of salty water, there has been quite a reasonable amount of rust made already thankfully

speaking of iron oxide, is there an easy way to get rid of that oxygen atom and return it back to regular iron? without using a thermite type reaction, which I think is called a displacement reaction?

Without digging up the math behind it, is this correct:

You can put iron and oxygen together because its thermodynamically delicious, but trying to reverse the process requires a ton of energy (magnesium fire) to counter the energy of the bond formed when the iron oxidized.

Sound good? layman's terms make things so much easier to understand for me.

good point, but once you've got the bond, there should be enough energy holding it together to tell off thermodynamics as opposed to the bond with say.. triiodide stuff. obviously it can't be thermodynamically sound for iron and oxygen to fall apart, because iron will oxidize just by sitting in a humid environment. why is that then? I mean, I understand the point about entropy, but not just iron can oxidize and stay that way. aluminum oxide for instance. so why DO things oxidize if it goes against the idea of entropy?

well.. over where i am.. i can only get the crap 3% H2O2 solution. which is. quite sad.. wonder if the pharmacist has some higher concentration H2O2 hidden in that cupboard behind the counter..

The 3% H2O2 will work too, you just have to leave the iron wool in to soak, and use more peroxide thats all, it seems to be about the cheapest way to make rust anyway