Thermal equation of state of iron and Fe_0.91Si_0.09

Abstract 

We have carried out an in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study on iron and an iron-silicon alloy Fe_0.91Si_0.09 at simultaneously high pressure and temperature. Unit-cell volumes, measured up to 8.9 GPa and 773 K on the bcc phases of iron and Fe_0.91Si_0.09, are analyzed using the Birch-Murnaghan equation of state and thermal pressure approach of Anderson. Equation of state parameters on iron are found to be in agreement with results of previous studies. For both iron and Fe_0.91Si_0.09, thermal pressures show strong dependence on volume; the (∂K_T/∂T)_V values are considerably larger than those previously reported for other solids. The present results, in combination with our previous results on ɛ-FeSi, suggest a small dependency of the room-temperature bulk modulus upon the silicon content, less than 0.3 GPa for 1 wt.% silicon. We also find that substitution of silicon in iron would not appreciably change the thermoelastic properties of iron-rich Fe−Si alloys. If this behavior persists over large pressure and temperature ranges, the relative density contrast between iron and iron-rich Fe−Si alloys at conditions of the outer core of the Earth could be close to that measured at ambient conditions, i.e., 0.6% for 1 wt.% Si.