I'm doing an online chemistry course and we were directed to do a lab involving cleaning pennies. Basically it involves placing dull pennies in a solution of vinegar and salt to clean the pennies.
I know the pennies become dull due to the copper becoming oxidized from reacting with the acetic acid. I've done a bit of searching online as to why we add salt to the solution. I've seen comments that the chlorine in the salt mixed with the hydrogen in the acetic acid to make some HCl, however I've seen many comments saying this is untrue, but I've seen no alternatives as to the function of the salt.
My only guess is that the salt speeds up the reaction because of its ability to be fairly corrosive?
