Characterization of Iron Metal Corrosion in Liquid Smoke Coagulant

Latex coagulant is one of important factors on natural rubber processing because it will determine the quality of rubber end products. One of the coagulants that produce good quality natural rubber is liquid smoke. The use of liquid smoke as coagulant is thought to cause corrosion in processing equipment commonly made of iron or steel. The objectives of this study were to identify and to study the characteristic of iron metal corrosion in the solution of liquid smoke coagulant. The treatment of liquid smoke as corrosion media consisted of 100% pure liquid smoke (AC100), 10% pure liquid smoke (AC10), 100% liquid smoke formula (FA100) and 10% liquid smoke formula (FA10). The method used was weight loss method with the planned interval test. The removal of corrosion products on the metal specimen was done by pickling method based on ASTM G1-81. The results showed that corrosion rate of the liquid smoke and its formula was around 0.05-0.23 mm per years. Corrosion resistance of iron metal in liquid smoke coagulant was categorized as good level. This analysis indicated that liquid smoke coagulant and its formula has very low corrosivity level. The visualization with 10x magnification showed that the corrosion attack was clearly visible on the iron metal surface.