Restless Nature of Metals
Definition
Metals do not occur naturally in their refined metallic form; their familiar pipes and plates are temporary high-energy states. In nature iron is bound to oxygen as stable low-energy oxides.
Iron in nature appears as hematite, magnetite, and goethite, which are low-energy and stable. Refining forces atoms into conductive crystalline lattices that are useful but thermodynamically unstable. The shared, delocalized electrons that bond the lattice are mobile and will leave once a path exists, which is what makes the metal vulnerable to corrosion.
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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 🔥 thermodynamics