Part IV – April 1968 - Papers - Oxygen Diffusivity in Bcc Iron Stabilized by Phosphorous

Iron containing 0.1 pct A1 and -0.9 pct P by weight was internally oxidized in the temperature range 900° to 1300° C, where the bcc structure is stabilized by phosphorous. By measuring the depth of penetration of oxygen with time in an internally oxidized zone for an imposed surface oxygen potential, oxygen permeability was determined. The dgfusion coefficient of oxygen in iron was then calculated using known solubility data, yielding the expression: where Do is the diffusion coefficient of oxygen in bcc iron in sq cm per sec and T is temperature in OK. RECENTLY Hepworth, Smith, and Turkdoganl measured the diffusivity of oxygen in bcc iron and reported the temperature dependence of diffusivity from data determined in the a, and 6 temperature ranges. Subsequently Swisher and Turkdogan' have measured the diffusivity of oxygen in fcc iron. Internal oxidation techniques were employed by these investigators and in this current study. The analysis of this technique is developed by wagner3 (presented in English by Hauffe4 and Rapp 5). In this present study bcc iron stabilized by phosphorous was used to determine oxygen diffusivity in the temperature range 900° to 1300°C. Meijerin 6 has studied oxygen permeability in this temperature range using bcc iron stabilized with 5 pct Sn. Other inves- tigators who have studied oxygen permeability in bcc iron at other temperatures are Schenck et al., 7 Bohen-kamp and Engell, 8 and Bradford. EXPERIMENTAL Electrolytic iron of 99.99 pct purity was alloyed to contain 0.897 pct P and 0.093 pct Al. The maximum weight percent phosphorous required to stabilize bcc iron between 910" and 1392°C is 0.51 pct as determined by Haughton,10 0.42 pct by Roquet and jegaden," and 0.58 pct by vogel,12 with the latter value preferred by Hansen.13 Microprobe analysis indicated that there was no segregation of the phosphorous either before or after permeability studies; therefore, the quantity of phosphorous added was assumed to be sufficient to stabilize the bcc structure. Furthermore, the permeability results of studies on this alloy agreed substantially with interpolated values from previous data on bcc iron.' An ingot of the Fe-P-A1 alloy was hot-rolled to a l-in.-thick slab. Specimens were machined to dimensions: 13/8 by $ by 1/4 in. The experimental apparatus and procedure used have been described before.' A constant oxygen potential was established by passing argon and hydrogen through a column of oxalic acid dihydrate, which has a water vapor pressure which is well-known as a function of temperature. Slab specimens were exposed to a gas mixture sufficiently lean in oxygen to prevent the formation of a surface oxide for predetermined temperature for selected times. The specimens were then quenched, sectioned, and examined metallo-graphically. All quenched specimens were iron-plated to provide protection from the outside sample edge during polishing. Fig. 1 shows a typical microstruc-ture for a specimen oxidized at 953°C for 48.00 hr at a water vapor-to-hydrogen pressure ratio of 0.20. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS The following equation was derived by Hepworth et al.' from Wagner's kinetic expressions for internal oxidation: