Are corrosion and oxidation the same thing?

1 Answer
Apr 10, 2018

Not necessarily.

Explanation:

The process of "oxidation" can refer to a reaction of a substance with oxygen, and doesn't necessarily refer to a process of corrosion. For example, the reaction of carbon and oxygen to form carbon dioxide is oxidation, but there is no corrosion taking place.

Corrosion (the gradual destruction of, most commonly, metals by chemical or electrochemical reaction with the environment) often does involve oxygen, but doesn't always have to.