As with detailing lets start with everyone’s favourite smelling product – Fallout Remover! Now fallout remover is a bizarre mixture of chemicals, because they all do something different to aid with cleaning but all have to work together without interacting with each other.
The main purpose of fallout remover is to remove Iron deposits on your vehicle, be it the paintwork or the wheels. Now this may look complicated for some but below is how our product works.
The brake dust on your wheels is Ferric Oxide also known as Rust. It is made of Iron and Oxygen with the chemical formula Fe2O3.
The Iron in Ferric Oxide is reduced (which means it gains a negative electron) with Sodium Thioglycolate (the stinky stuff) in the presence of an alkali source to Ferrous Oxide (1) with the chemical formula FeO. The reduction turns the Fe3+ of Ferric Oxide into Fe2+of Ferrous Oxide.
The newly formed Ferrous Oxide then reacts with the Sodium Thioglycolate to form Ferrous Thioglycolate (2). The Ferrous Thioglycolate then immediately gets ionised into a Ferrothioglycolate ion which is dark red! The Sodium and Oxygen lost in the reaction then react to form Sodium Oxide which in the presence of water turns into Sodium Hydroxide (3) which keeps the reaction neutral; making it safe for use on paintwork. In the presence of water the Sodium Hydroxide dissociates into Hydroxide ions and Sodium ions. 2 Ferrothioglygolate ions then wrap themselves around the one of the Sodium ions in what is called chelation. This creates a heavier molecule (4) which gravity pulls away from your vehicles surfaces and gets removed when you rinse.
1. Fe2O3+ 2HSCH2COONa + 2e– → 2FeO + 2(SCH2COONa)– + H2O
2. FeO + 2(SCH2COONa)– → Fe(SCH2COONa)2 + O2- → Fe(SCH2COO)22- + Na2O
3. Na2O + H2O → 2NaOH ⇌ 2Na+ + 2OH–
4. 2Na+ + Fe(SCH2COO)22- → Fe(SCH2COO)2Na2