For iron to get oxidized you need oxygen, if some how you prevent iron powder from the contact of the oxygen you are safe, this usually done by filling the containers in which iron powder is stored with volatile inhibitors like dicyclohexylamine nitrate ( formula (C6H11)2 NH2 NO2) and a salt of dicyclohexylamine with a fatty acid etc
One may enclose the iron powder with a thin metallic foil having much lower -electronegativity such as Zn etc. The most widely used metal for the protection of steel is zinc. Zinc metal in direct contact with the steel substrate offers protection through the preferential oxidation of zinc metal. Zinc is a great choice in protecting steel, as not only does it corrode in preference to the steel, the rate of corrosion is generally slower. This rate, however, is accelerated in the presence of ions such as chlorides in coastal locations.
Find a supplier of vapour phase inhibitors, e.g. http://www.agmcontainer.com/products/vpci.html
Contrary to what was stated by Pathak, iron powders are extremely reactive to air/oxygen, and it is very difficult to prevent their surfaces from oxidising, as there is a very large thermodynamic driving force for iron to return to its natural state, i.e. iron oxide. Even a VPI is incapable of preventing that. Your iron powders will have a very thin oxide layer on their surfaces. (You can only prevent this by keeping the oxygen potential below a certain value which is a function of temperature, please have a look at an Ellingham diagram. At room temperature the required values are impossibly low to achieve !!!! You, (we all), rely on the slow kinetics of oxidation of iron at room temperature, see 'Oxidation of Metals and Alloys, 'Kubaschewski and Hopkins, pub. Butterworths.) However, they (VPIs) will prevent corrosion, i.e. rusting of the iron powder. Thus it's more about preventing moisture coming into contact with the iron. Note now we have a (potential) corrosion process taking place on the surface of the metal, so you have mini corrosion cells with anodic and cathodic sites. The action of the inhibitor is to interfere with the electrochemical processes going on at either or both of these sites. The science of these VPIs may have moved on, but it used to be the case that no one was 100% certain about their exact mode of action (see attached paper).
They may also have a direct desiccant effect, i.e. absorbing moisture, NB it is important to keep the system sealed (place in a sealed drum ?) to prevent further ingress of air/moisture which would exhaust the VPI's corrosion prevention capabilities.
DearJohn Butler, Thank you very much for the information. In my research i am going to use a pure iron powder, so the challenge is to protect the powder from corrosion.
now applying the inhibitors in the iron powder wither it can mix with powder or film the powder or something else..... ( searching)
yes I have reviewed some articles on organic inhibitors, most of them are used in solid state metals on surface, now the confusion is that, it can be use in powder or not..