We hypothesized that as the temperature of the acid bath is increased then the corrosion rate of aluminum will increase. If the temperature of the acid bath is decreased then the corrosion rate of aluminum will decrease. Our results showed that our hypothesis was supported. The aluminum strip submerged in the 61˚C acid solution had the highest rate of corrosion. At 32˚C, the corrosion rate was only half as much as we observed at 61˚C and at 20˚C it was only 25%. This proves that temperature has a direct relationship with the rate of corrosion. For the aluminum to corrode, both oxygen and water are required. Adding Sodium and Ferric acid to the water helps accelerate the corrosion process. We noticed most of the corrosion occurring at the crevice of the aluminum strips where there is a greater concentration of oxygen.
During this experiment, we also noticed pitting of the aluminum. This factor was not measured in our experiment however in a repeat experiment we could measure the effects of pitting by weighing the aluminum before and after the effects of corrosion. The difference in weight before and after the time interval would provide a measure of both corrosion and pitting of the metal. This could form the basis of a new hypothesis and experiment which includes pitting.