Corrosion products on iron ware from “Huaguang Reef Ⅰ” and the removal of harmful salts were investigated.The surface resistivity of the rust on one iron ware named HTQ6# was （3×103）—（1×108） Ω

and the rust was completely mineralized.The rust including Fe3O4

α-FeOOH

γ-FeOOH and FeOCl was magnetic.In order to avoid the damage of the harmful rust including γ-FeOOH and FeOCl on the original appearance of the cultural relics

desalination process using constant current density of -0.5 mA·cm-2 in 2.5% NaOH solution was studied.The results were shown as follows.The proportion of chloride ion removed was 53.31%

which was higher than that by using impulsive current

at the final time of desalination for 264 h.Meanwhile

the concentration of chloride ion in the solution was 6.1 mg·L-1 and electrical efficiency was 1.95%.In this process

the amount of chloride ion in the iron matrix decreased from 2.03% to 0.95% at applied potential of -2.25—-1.61 V with the potential stabilized at -1.61 V.