CL409 Materials Science: Problem Set 4 (Crystal Imperfections) Aug-Sep 2018

PROBLEM 5 RE_WORDED to address some confusions:

Consider the case of interstitial Carbon (at. wt. 12) as defects in Fe (at. wt. 56)
lattice. In FCC Fe, C atoms are located at octahedral sites at the center of each edge
of the unit cell, (1/2, 0, 0), and at (1/2, 1/2, 1/2), the center of the unit cell. In BCC
iron, carbon atoms enter tetrahedral sites, (1/4, 1/2, 0). The lattice parameter is
0.3571nm for FCC iron and 0.2866nm for BCC iron. C in BCC Fe is phase D
(0.022wt%) at 727°C and phase G (0.09wt%) at 1493°C.

BOTH, D and G phases, have BCC Fe structures. The defect creation of C-atoms in
interstices, requires energy, 'HCi . What is the entropy associated with placing the

C in the interstices? Determine 'HCi for each case.

The following part was missing in the Problem Set:

The J phase or the austenitic phase is FCC.
C present as stoichiometric Fe3C has a metastable structure. Here, it is present IN an INTERMETALLIC
COMPOUND. It is NOT A DEFECT. The actual
structure is an ORTHORHOMBIC structure. Each C
atom is connected to 8 Fe Atoms and each Fe atom is
attached to 2 C atoms. Some schematics are given
here. The unit cell contains 4 Fe3C molecules.

x y z

C 0.881 0.25 0.431

Fe1 0.044 0.25 0.837

Fe2 0.181 0.063 0.337

Fe3C (Cementite)
5.089 Å, 6.74 Å,
Lattice parameter(s)
4.52 Å
Other examples with this Fe3B, Co3C
structure

The carbon filled trigonal Fe6 prisms and one empty Fe6 octahedron are emphasized.

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