March 28, 2024, 07:13:44 PM
Forum Rules: Read This Before Posting


Topic: Strange iron carbide  (Read 4417 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline bberti

  • New Member
  • **
  • Posts: 4
  • Mole Snacks: +1/-0
Strange iron carbide
« 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?

Offline sjb

  • Global Moderator
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 3652
  • Mole Snacks: +222/-42
  • Gender: Male
Re: Strange iron carbide
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2011, 07:06:46 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

Offline longdeer

  • Very New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1
  • Mole Snacks: +0/-0
Re: Strange iron carbide
« Reply #2 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.

Offline Enthalpy

  • Chemist
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4041
  • Mole Snacks: +304/-59
Re: Strange iron carbide
« Reply #3 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.

Sponsored Links