Iron – Magnesium – Zirconium

Geert Davignon, Mauro Giovannini, Joachim Gröbner, Greg Haidemenopoulos and Hans Jürgen Seifert

Introduction

[60Sch] studied the combined solubility of Fe and Zr in liquid Mg. From experiments carried out at 698, 752 and 800°C, the authors were able to conclude that Fe reduces the solubility of Zr in (Mg) and vice versa (Fig. 1). The alloys were prepared by melting Zr-containing Mg in iron crucibles in an electric furnace at 50°C above the temperatures mentioned earlier. Fe was added after this and the temperature was lowered by 50°C and hold for one hour. By means of a graphite tube, to avoid further Fe contamination, part of the melt was taken and quenched. These samples were analysed for Fe (chemically) and Zr (photometrically) content in the phases (Mg) and Fe₂Zr. By plotting the logarithm of the molar fraction Zr of the precipitate against the logarithm of the molar fraction of Fe of the same phase for ea...