Do you know what galvanizing is?

[Ash366]

So TBR says galvanizing is trying to prevent deterioration of hull of a ship by adding on a more positive oxidation potentential so this can oxidize rather than the steel hull being oxidized).

One problem. Why would you want to cover the bottom of the ship with a more reactive oxidation potential to allow it to rust? Why don't u just cover the bottom of the ship with a very positive reduction potential so it doesn't rust at all?

For example if u cover the entire bottom with gold, the ship will barely rust. Thank you.

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[amy_k]

Galvanizing a ship doesn't allow the bottom of the ship to rust, only the "sacrificial anodes" which are small rods or larger blocks of a more active (more negative oxidation potential) metal like zinc placed all around the area to be protected. Only the sacrificial anodes rust, not the ships hull, and then when the ship is being maintained they just need to replace these small pieces of zinc rather than large pieces of steel. Think of the financial cost of covering the entire bottom of the ship with gold!!

 

[amy_k]

You can read more about it here

 

[sazerac]

If you had a steel ship and coated it in a thin layer of gold, the steel would rust and you would be left with a ship's hull of only a thin layer of gold.

 

[Ash366]

How would it rust if the bottom is covered in gold and gold gets reduced?

 

[EParker37]

How would it rust if the bottom is covered in gold and gold gets reduced?

If water got behind the layer of gold, the steel having the lower oxidation potential would begin to rust. The main reason they don't use gold, is that it is incredibly expensive to do that.