Dissolution of carbon in Ni-1at.% Fe upon strong cold deformation

Smelted Ni–C alloys (containing the Fe-57 isotope for Mössbauer studies) and powder mixtures of Ni+C (thermal black), Ni+Fe3C and Ni+VC were cold-deformed by compression and shear in Bridgman anvils to produce interstitial solid solutions of carbon in nickel. Mössbauer spectroscopic and X-ray structure analyses showed that the carbon concentration of the Ni–C solid solution was 1.5–2 at.%, which was several times smaller than the carbon concentration of Fe–Ni–C alloys produced under similar conditions. The type of carbon-containing particles determined the kinetics but had little effect on the limiting concentration of the synthesized Ni–C solid solutions. Ni–C was formed at a higher degree of deformation than Fe–C.