Properties of Iron

Iron is a shiny, bright white metal that is soft, malleable, ductile and strong. Its surface is usually discolored by corrosion, since it combines readily with the oxygen of the air in the presence of moisture. In absolutely dry air, it does not rust. The oxide that is produced is crumbly and soft, giving no protection to the base metal, which eventually rusts away. It is found in nature as the metal only in meteorites and in very rare circumstances where iron minerals have been reduced by environmental factors. Masses up to 25 tons in weight have been found in West Greenland. Practically, it is always obtained from ores that are usually the oxides, and occasionally the carbonate, as low in sulphur and phosphorus as possible. The plentiful iron pyrite, FeS2 is not an acceptable ore because sulphur is a deleterious impurity in iron, and expensive to remove in refining. Iron is the fourth most plentiful element in the earth's crust (4.6%), but is so widely disseminated that it can be obtained only from ores in which iron has been specially concentrated. Much of this concentration, incidentally, occurred very early in the earth's history when iron removed from the atmosphere the little oxygen that it then contained, possibly with the help of the earliest forms of life.

A clean surface of cobalt is tinged with pink, nickel with yellow. Neither rusts as vigorously as iron, since the oxide layers are more protective and adherent. Nickel displays a resistant bright surface that takes a high polish. It is generally used as an undercoat for chromium plating, since chromium is not suitable by itself on iron, as the electrodeposited film is not continuous.

Iron has atomic number 26, atomic weight 55.85, and stable isotopes 54 (5.9%), 56 (91.6%), 57 (2.2%) and 58 (0.33%). Its electron configuration is Ar3d64s2, and its first and second ionization potentials are 7.87V and 16.18V. With its neighbors cobalt (Z=27) and nickel (Z=28), it is one of the "iron triad" of similar metals. It is in the center of the periodic table, in the region of "transition metals" where a d-shell of electrons is being filled. The 4s electrons are actually more stable than the 3d electrons, so the d-electrons are actually on the outside of the atom. The d-shell can hold 10 electrons, and as it becomes nearly filled, drops below the 4s electrons in energy. All these atoms filling d-shells make metals that are very much alike; if the d-electrons were more inside, these metals would be even more alike than they are. More will be said in connection with magnetism, in which these electrons play leading roles.

At room temperature, iron is in the form of ferrite, or α-iron, a body-centered cubic structure. The density of α-iron is 7.86 g/cc. At 910°C it changes to γ-iron, which is face-centered cubic and somewhat softer. At 1535°C iron melts, and boils at 3000°C. For more information on iron structures and the iron-carbon phase diagram, see Phase Rules!. Cobalt melts at 1480°C, nickel at 1455°C. The specific heat of any of the three metals is about 0.107 cal/g-K. The thermal conductivities of Fe, Co and Ni are 3.37, 3.81 and 4.19 cal/s-cm-K. Their electrical resistivities are 9.71, 6.24 and 6.84 μΩ-cm. These are "worse" than those of copper by factors of only 4 to 6, so the iron metals are very good conductors of electricity and heat. Comparing the numbers shows how similar these metals are in their physical properties. I have not heard whether cobalt and nickel make useful alloys with carbon, as iron does. They are much too expensive to use as structural metals, other than as alloying elements or coatings.

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