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Chemistry Forums for Students => Inorganic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: bberti on January 08, 2011, 06:34:38 AM

Title: Strange iron carbide
Post by: bberti on January 08, 2011, 06:34:38 AM
Last night I ran into a strange chemical formula.
Fe26C6.
It was on a narrative book of my mother and I thought this was complete bulls&$#. As far as I know the only iron carbide is cementite with formula Fe3C.
Am I wrong?
Title: Re: Strange iron carbide
Post by: sjb on January 08, 2011, 07:06:46 AM
Quote from: bberti on January 08, 2011, 06:34:38 AM
Last night I ran into a strange chemical formula.
Fe26C6.
It was on a narrative book of my mother and I thought this was complete bulls&$#. As far as I know the only iron carbide is cementite with formula Fe3C.
Am I wrong?

You may be able to get higher complexes of iron and carbon, just like you have buckyballs and similar for pure carbon. Having said that, I am not actually aware of any, and it could mean simply FeC, with the atomic numbers used for iron and carbon? What was the actual formatting of the text?

I can't find a full phase diagram for iron-carbon mixtures at the moment
Title: Re: Strange iron carbide
Post by: longdeer on January 09, 2011, 05:40:20 PM
In the early 1900's some books identified chemical bonds by using the Atomic number as an addition to the structure. If you notice on the Periodic Table 6 is the At.No. for Carbon and 26 is the At.No. for Iron.
Title: Re: Strange iron carbide
Post by: Enthalpy on January 15, 2011, 10:44:52 PM
Many (dozens) iron carbides are known, with high numbers in their formula. Fe26C6 doesn't look uncommon, though I didn't memorize exact numbers.

Steel is the best known and most complex alloy. At least 10 names of different iron-carbide crystals are used commonly.

But sure, 26 and 6 suggest atomic numbers, well done.