Chemistry question [View all]

This is regarding the product "Evaporust", which is an aqueous rust-chelating solution.

No doubt the formula is proprietary, so we'll have to rely on educated guessing.

So here's my question: if I leave an iron-based metal in the solution indefinitely, will it eventually rust, presumably when the chelator is exhausted? And will the metal continue oxidizing the whole time, just not visibly evident? Is it comparable, in terms of corrosive effect, to just leaving the item in water?

From a practical standpoint, what I'm wondering is whether leaving rust-prone items (tools, etc) in Evaporust is a viable storage method, so tools are always rust-free.

Or will the metal eventually just disappear? It'd be interesting if the product were somehow self-renewing, but who'd bring such a thing to market?

Btw, I highly recommend this product I'm cleaning up all the rusty items in my household, and is it satisfying!

On a related note, is there a known way to easily remove water from WD40? This whole issue came up because after de-rusting items, I would place them in a container and spray with WD40, saving the runoff--then dumped a bunch of small items into that pool and left them there, thinking they'd be safe. But they started rusting again after a couple days. I figured it was from the accumulated water.