[schmitgreg]

I would like to verify my belief about combustion of Fe (Iron).

This is the basic equasion I get:
Fe + O₂ => Fe₂O₃

I have two different possible (I Think) equasions that are balenced:
4Fe + 3O₂ => 2Fe₂O₃
and also:
2Fe + O₂ => 2FeO

I want to make sure that I am producing Fe₂O₃ and not FeO.

My method is burning steel wool (Fe mostly) in order to get the Fe₂O₃, so it there a way to make sure that I only get the molecule I want, or is it left up to chance?

Also, if it is chance, about how much FeO will I get in relation to Fe₂O₃?

Thanks guys!

[enahs]

FeO is unstable and is easily turned into Fe2O3 in the presence of oxygen.


No worries about producing appreciable amounts of FeO with your method.

[schmitgreg]

I'm not that far into chemistry, but I'm interested in this:

What makes FeO unstable? If iron likes to lose 2, 3, or 6 electrons and Oxygen likes to take 1 or 2 electrons then what about FeO is unstable?

I'm sorry if this seems elementary but i have just started chemistry and I'm interested.

Also, the compound made by combusting Fe is Fe₂O₃. However I have read from wikipedia (which could be just plain wrong) that FeO is suceptible to becoming Iron(III) Oxide (Fe₂O₃) which I thought was rust. Wikipedia says that it is not rust, and this confuses me. Fe₂O₃ is the exact same thing as rust right??

Here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(II)_oxide

[enahs]

The wiki article says not to confuse Iron(II) Oxide with rust, which is considered Iron(III) Oxide (Fe2O3). You just misread wiki.


When I say unstable, I was probably confusing and wrong for saying it like that.  In this specific reaction it is either slightly less thermodynamically stable, and thus Fe2O3 forms more, or just as likely it is not as kinetically favorable  (forms slower the Fe2O3).


And FeO is easily turned into Fe2O3 in the presence of OH-, I do not know what I was thinking yesterday.

[schmitgreg]

Awesome, thanks for the info.

Yeah, you are right, I thought it was saying Iron (III) Oxide.