Iron and Steel Division - Activities in Iron-Chromium Alloys

Measurements have been made between 1040o and 1300°C of the equilibrium between chromium metal, chromic oxide, hydrogen, and water. The results are in closer agreement with those deduced from recent thermal data than with previous equilibrium values. They lead to the equation ?G°1300°-1600°k = -266,700 + 59.95T ± 300 cal for the formzation of a mole of Cr2O3 from chromium and oxygen. This same equilibrium has been studied with the chromium dissolved in solid iron, and in this way chromium activities in Fe + Cr alloys have been established. The measuremenis show that there are substantial positive deviations from ideality in the a, and b phases, and support the results obtained by Heymer and Kubaschewski against those of other investigators. There is considerable disagreement between existing data,1"4 which is referred to in the Discussion, concerning the equilibrium Cr2O3 + 3H2 = 2Cr + 3H2O [l] There is also substantial disagreement between the results obtained by various investigators5-' who have measured the activities of chromium in its alloys with iron by the Knudsen effusion vapor pressure method. In view of the importance in metallurgical processes of chromium and its oxide and of Fe-Cr alloys, an attempt has been made to study equilib- rium [I] both with pure chormium metal and with chromium alloyed with iron, at temperatures between 1040o and 1300oC. From the work with the alloys it is possible to derive the chromium activities from the relationship