Print Email Facebook Twitter Origin of Predominance of Cementite among Iron Carbides in Steel at Elevated Temperature Title Origin of Predominance of Cementite among Iron Carbides in Steel at Elevated Temperature Author Fang, C.M. Sluiter, M.H.F. Van Huis, M.A. Ande, C.K. Zandbergen, H.W. Faculty Applied Sciences Date 2010-07-30 Abstract A long-standing challenge in physics is to understand why cementite is the predominant carbide in steel. Here we show that the prevalent formation of cementite can be explained only by considering its stability at elevated temperature. A systematic highly accurate quantum mechanical study was conducted on the stability of binary iron carbides. The calculations show that all the iron carbides are unstable relative to the elemental solids, ?-Fe and graphite. Apart from a cubic Fe23C6 phase, the energetically most favorable carbides exhibit hexagonal close-packed Fe sublattices. Finite-temperature analysis showed that contributions from lattice vibration and anomalous Curie-Weis magnetic ordering, rather than from the conventional lattice mismatch with the matrix, are the origin of the predominance of cementite during steel fabrication processes. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:86e4f841-a1ca-416a-996d-20cf1d429b70 DOI https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.055503 Publisher American Physical Society ISSN 0031-9007 Source http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v105/i5/e055503 Source Physical Review Letters, 105 (5), 2010 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2010 The Author(s); American Physical Society Files PDF Fang_2010.pdf 418.17 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:86e4f841-a1ca-416a-996d-20cf1d429b70/datastream/OBJ/view