In: Chemistry
3. Recall the steel phase diagram where ferrite iron had a max C
solid solubility of 0.022 wt% Cbut austenite could take up to 2.14
wt% C! The carbon solubility in iron varies dramatically
between the different phases. Explain why demonstrating with a
calculation (hint: austenite isFCC whereas ferrite is BCC
Carbon gets into the interstitial sites in iron.As the carbon atom is about twice the diameter of the interstitial holes so carbon atom occupies octahedral interstices mostly in both bcc and fcc.
Solubility of carbon is more in Austenite as the number of octahedral holes is larger in fcc than bcc.
bcc (interstices size) tetrahedral radius =0.29r
octahedral radius =0.15r
fcc tetrahedral radius =0.23r
octahedral radius =0.41r
r=atomic radius of iron
calculation