Chemistry Lab Report: The effect of acid rain on different metals:

  • Research question:  From all of the metals Iron, Copper, Tin, Aluminium, Lead, Nickel, used in the architecture of a building, which of these metals will corrode the least when acid rain reacts with these metals?
  • Background Information :Acid rain is caused  by air pollution  when fossil fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas is burnt and when smoke is emitted from industries into the air. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides  which is present in the smoke, reacts with the water and the other chemicals in the air to form nitric acid(HNO3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) which falls down to the earth’s surface as acid rain and since it is corrosive, it causes damage to buildings, sculptures and to other forms of infrastructure.
  • Theory: Metals such as, Copper, Tin, Aluminum, Lead, Nickel, will corrode or dissolve in the acid when it reacts with acid rain causing the mass of the metal to decrease. It also causes the metal to rust which makes it useless for the building.
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All the metals, will decrease in their mass when reacted with acid rain so to measure which metal is destructed the most, the loss in mass for all the metals over a fixed period of time will be used for investigation.

  • Materials used for the experiment:
  • 3000 ml of acid rain for investigation.
  • 1000 ml (± 5 ml) measuring cylinder for measuring the amount of acid rain used.
  • 100 g of solid Tin chips.
  • 100 g of solid copper chips.
  • 100 g of  solid Iron chips.
  • 100 g of solid Lead chips.
  • 100 g of solid nickel chips.
  • 100 ...

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