Out of curiosity, does electron flow influence oxidation speed at all?
Or is its speed purely a consequence of temperature + environmental gases?
Or is its speed purely a consequence of temperature + environmental gases?
Oxidation (and reduction) are literally electron flows.
Oxidation is a loss of electrons and reduction is a gain of electrons.
Since the oxidizing material is the anode in this (oxidation "circuit") you can connect a "sacrificial anode" to the material you want to preserve and the electrons will flow from that instead of the (material you want to save).
We have sacrificial anodes connected to our underground propane tank:
http://www.pettank.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/cathode-pr...
... which means a bag of magnesium does all the rusting instead of the tank they are connected to.
But it seems like you can indeed block the reaction from occuring by saturating the surface with enough electrons (i.e. by applying an appropriate amount of current) that it makes oxidation impossible from an electrochemical standpoint.
https://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/1237/impressed-cur...
(In addition to the more common, passive bolt-on-a-sacrifical-cathode method)
I’ve also heard of cathodic protection or electronic rust proofing doing the opposite though? Maybe it has to do with moving charges vs static charges? Or ground a cable preventing rust vs charging it accelerates rust?
And also, assuming it's wrapped but not encased to cabling standards (e.g. there's oxygen between the insulator and wire, but the insulator itself is contiguous and airtight), oxidation would eventually deplete the available oxygen "inside" the cable, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIwvLuNzliI
I’d think that charge would create a faster rusting.
Gonna have to guess that you've never had to replace a car exhaust :-)
In general, you have this problem with cold metal when there's enough humidity to cause condensation. Bare cast iron in an unconditioned space under cover will definitely rust from condensation.