Interstitial carbon atoms

The interstitial carbides These are formed by the transition metals (e.g. titanium, iron) and have the general formula M, C. They are often non-stoichiometric—the carbon atoms can occupy some or all of the small spaces between the larger metal atoms, the arrangement of which remains essentially the same as in the pure metal (cf. the interstitial hydrides). 

In tire transition-metal monocarbides, such as TiCi j , the metal-rich compound has a large fraction of vacairt octahedral interstitial sites and the diffusion jump for carbon atoms is tlrerefore similar to tlrat for the dilute solution of carbon in the metal. The diffusion coefficient of carbon in the monocarbide shows a relatively constairt activation energy but a decreasing value of the pre-exponential... 

Fig. 8.12. The structure of 0.8% carbon martensite. During the transformation, the carbon atoms put themselves into the interstitial sites shown. To moke room for them the lattice stretches along one cube direction (and contracts slightly along the other two). This produces what is called a face-centred tetragonal unit cell. Note that only a small proportion of the labelled sites actually contain a carbon atom.

Fig. 6. Radiation damage in graphite showing the induced crystal dimensional strains. Impinging fast neutrons displace carbon atoms from their equilibrium lattice positions, producing an interstitial and vacancy. The coalescence of vacancies causes contraction in the a-direction, whereas interstitials may coalesce to form dislocation loops (essentially new graphite planes) causing c-direction expansion.

Another subsidiary field of study was the effect of high concentrations of a diffusing solute, such as interstitial carbon in iron, in slowing diffusivity (in the case of carbon in fee austenite) because of mutual repulsion of neighbouring dissolved carbon atoms. By extension, high carbon concentrations can affect the mobility of substitutional solutes (Babu and Bhadeshia 1995). These last two phenomena, quenched-in vacancies and concentration effects, show how a parepisteme can carry smaller parepistemes on its back. 

Steel is an alloy of about 2% or less carbon in iron. Carbon atoms are much smaller than iron atoms, and so they cannot substitute for iron in the crystal lattice. Indeed, they are so small that they can fit into the interstices (the holes) in the iron lattice. The resulting material is called an interstitial alloy (Fig. 5.48). For two elements to form an interstitial alloy, the atomic radius of the solute element must be less than about 60% of the atomic radius of the host metal. The interstitial atoms interfere with electrical conductivity and with the movement of the atoms forming the lattice. This restricted motion makes the alloy harder and stronger than the pure host metal would be. 

These carbides, also known as interstitial carbides, are crystalline compounds of a host metal and carbon. The host-metal atoms are generally arranged in a close-packed structure and the carbon occupies specific interstitial sites in that structure. Such a structure sets size restrictions on the two elements in order for the carbon atom to fit into the available sites and the population of these sites (if all are occupied) determines the stoichiometry of the carbide. 

The presence of even a few carbon atoms gray spheres) in the interstitial holes in an iron lattice prevents adjacent layers of iron atoms from sliding past one another and hardens the iron into steel. 

When most transition metals are heated with carbon, the lattice expands and carbon atoms occupy interstitial positions. The metals become harder, higher melting, and more brittle as a result. For... 

There are many metal alloys that contain interstitial atoms embedded in the metal structure. Traditionally, the interstitial alloys most studied are those of the transition metals with carbon and nitrogen, as the addition of these atoms to the crystal structure increases the hardness of the metal considerably. Steel remains the most important traditional interstitial alloy from a world perspective. It consists of carbon atoms distributed at random in interstitial sites within the face-centered cubic structure of iron to form the phase austenite, which exists over the composition range from pure iron to approximately 7 at % carbon. 

For stations B and C, where the LAS concentrations were higher than for A, the variation in total LAS concentration with sediment depth was determined by the homologues of 12 and 13 carbon atoms (Fig. 6.5.4). These homologues present a strong tendency to sorption and are readily biodegradable. In interstitial water, the vertical profile of the LAS concentration is similar to that observed for the sediment, particularly at stations B and C. The homologue-specific partition coefficient did not vary much with depth, because there is no appreciable variation in the composition of the sediment with depth [34]. 

Similar results were found for the decomposition on surface carbides of tungsten. The W(IOO) surface reconstructs to form a W(IOO) (5 x 1)C structure, as shown in Fig. 2. This structure has been interpreted to be a hexagonal layer of W2C on top of the (100) surface 110) with the carbon atoms in interstitial positions under the first layer of tungsten atoms 111). The presence of the carbon atoms strongly modified the reactivity of the surface. Rather than dissociating formic acid completely like W(IOO), the carbide surface selectively formed the formate. The decomposition proceeded at 540 K with... 

Palladium metallic clusters have been prepared at room temperature by sonochemical reduction of Pd(OAc)2 and a surfactant, myristyltrimethylammonium bromide, in THE or MeOH [160[. It is noteworthy that nanosized amorphous Pd is obtained in THE, but in a crystalline form in MeOH. In this solvent, and in higher homologous alcohols, sonolysis of tetrachloropalladate(II) leads to Pd nanoclusters in which carbon atoms, formed by complete decomposition of the solvent, can diffuse. This results in an interstitial solid having the formula PdQ (0 < x < 0.15) [161]. Noble metal nanoparticles of Au, Pd, and Ag are obtained by sonicating aqueous solutions of the corresponding salts in the presence of a surfactant, which largely stabilise the naked col-... 

Note The carbido carbon atom is semi-interstitial and is regarded as a ligand and not a vertex site, as shown below ... 

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