A few years ago, Brandon noticed that the steel scooper that he used to dip into a bag of de-icer had become rusty. He suspected salt was to blame and set out to test three de-icers for their corrosive effects on steel. He hypothesized that a de-icer containing a combination of salt, magnesium chloride, and a corrosion inhibitor would be the least corrosive.
Brandon built a machine that dipped steel plates into small vats of water for two minutes at a time and retracted them for 20 minutes. One vat contained salt and a corrosion inhibitor. A second vat had salt, magnesium chloride, and a corrosion inhibitor. A third contained magnesium chloride and other chlorides plus a corrosion inhibitor. A fourth vat contained only water, as a control. After 928 wet-dry cycles, Brandon removed the plates, dried them, and removed the rust. He weighed the plates before and after rust removal and found that the de-icer containing magnesium chloride, other chlorides, and a corrosion inhibitor proved the least corrosive.
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