Question #85621

1 Answer
Michael
Sep 24, 2014

The product is a combination of iron(II) oxide #FeO# and iron(III) oxide #Fe_2O_3#.

This reaction occures when steam is passed over hot iron:

#3Fe_((s))+4H_2O_((g))rightleftharpoonsFe_3O_(4(s))+4H_(2(g))#

That's a good question because rusting produces #Fe_2O_3#, as you stated, but the conditions are different as you need a combination of water and oxygen and the reaction happens much more slowly.

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