Telescope Reviews: Meteorite Storage Aid Worthy Of Being Tested

I was in my local Lowe's Home Improvement Store and noticed something in the tools department. It could have use in meteorite storage.

The product is a non-skid Polyvinyl Chloride foam mesh shelf lining material that is apparently impregnated with corrosion inhibitor (Zerust.) You use it in your tool box to protect your tools from rust, but I believe it can be used to help prevent rusting of iron meteorites as long as the PVC does not make direct contact with the meteorite (read on for more on that.)

Now, PVC contains chlorine which causes rusting of the iron in meteorites. But it apparently has to make contact with the iron to be harmful. There have been discussions elsewhere around using the color coded desiccant crystals that change from pink to blue when saturated with moisture. At that point, you would "recharge" the crystals by heating them in an oven to dry them out again. The crystals likely contain Cobalt Chloride as the indicator. Again, as long as the dessicant is not in direct contact, it should be OK.

This PVC stuff can be easily cut into sizes to fit your cases (placed in the back of the case and separated from the specimen by foam or some other porous material. This could replace the corrosion inhibitors made of paper, which do basically the same thing, but are quite expensive.

The PVC material seems quite reasonably priced. A roll measuring 22.5 inches by 118 inches (about 18.4 square feet) is $14.98 US Dollars. That would make very many squares to put in specimen boxes! It appears to be a mesh with about a 0.062 inch thickness or so. I do believe it to be less than 0.125 inch. It is hard to tell looking at the roll in the store.

Here are some links, one to Lowe's and the other to the manufacturer's website for Zerust.

Lowe's
Zerust

At the very least, it is good for preventing rust on some of your tools. I am picking up a roll and will give it a test.

Anybody heard of this being used for meteorites?

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Ed

Televue TV76
Coronado SM60/BF15
Meteorite Collection
Member of IMCA - http://www.imca.cc

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