Studies of Fe Metal Carburization by Carbon Monoxide Using XRD and TPR Techniques

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of carburization of metallic Fe by (20%,v/v) carbon monoxide (CO). Carburization of Fe by carbon monoxide was examined by using temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), X-Ray powder diffractometry (XRD) and Carbon Hydrogen Nitrogen Sulfur (CHNS) technique. Based on a thermodynamic calculation, the free energy Gibb’s value to produce carbon is-8.08 kcal/mol which are favorable. However, production of iron carbide from the same reaction, the free energy Gibb’s value is +9.24 kcal/mol which is not feasible. From the XRD results, shows that after carburization of Fe, the peak appears only for Fe but there is a broad peak between 20 – 30°. The peak might be indicated as carbon in amorphous form. This finding is supported by the percent of carbon content in CHNS analysis which are increasing when the temperature is increased. This shows that after carburization the carbon content is increasing with increasing in temperature due to carbon deposited on metallic iron. In this research, three different temperatures were used which are 300°C, 500°C and 700°C.