Will chlorine eat away at or destroy a tungsten wedding band?

Question

We just bought my husband a tungsten wedding band because we heard that they are basically indestructible and he is pretty rough on jewelry. The thing is, he does maintenance on pools and works with all the chemicals involved with that. He is afraid that the chlorine he is constantly touching will eat away at the metal. Will it? I don't think it will but we both figure better to be safe than sorry. We just need to know whether or not he will be able to wear his ring while he works or if he will have to take it off.

Answer 1

Most reactions involving tungsten require a lot of energy to occur, so your husband's ring is probably safe provided he's not arc welding the pools.

Answer 2

yes i think so.

it's in the standard reduction potential of tungsten and chlorine that will tell wheather your wedding band is safe or not.

swimming pools are maintained between pH 7.0-7.6 which is basic and tungsten will therefore be oxidized to an oxide of tungsten.

as i googled the standard reduction potential of tungsten to another tungsten species and the standard reduction of chlorine to chloride, the redox equation will yield a positive value when the two half reactions are added.

therefore, when the value is positive, the reaction is spontaneous under normal conditions in which chlorine is turned to chloride and tungsten to tungsten oxide.

it will wear the tungsten wedding band especially if the band is always exposed in water with chlorine.

Answer 3

I would highly doubt that chlorine from a pool would hurt the band, but chlorine won't do anythign to gold or platinum...

The only issue is that the surface will slowly oxidize in air (other precious metals won't).