[bberti]

Last night I ran into a strange chemical formula.
Fe26C6.
It was on a narrative book of my mother and I thought this was complete bulls&$#. As far as I know the only iron carbide is cementite with formula Fe3C.
Am I wrong?

[sjb]

Last night I ran into a strange chemical formula.
Fe26C6.
It was on a narrative book of my mother and I thought this was complete bulls&$#. As far as I know the only iron carbide is cementite with formula Fe3C.
Am I wrong?

You may be able to get higher complexes of iron and carbon, just like you have buckyballs and similar for pure carbon. Having said that, I am not actually aware of any, and it could mean simply FeC, with the atomic numbers used for iron and carbon? What was the actual formatting of the text?

I can't find a full phase diagram for iron-carbon mixtures at the moment

[longdeer]

In the early 1900's some books identified chemical bonds by using the Atomic number as an addition to the structure. If you notice on the Periodic Table 6 is the At.No. for Carbon and 26 is the At.No. for Iron.

[Enthalpy]

Many (dozens) iron carbides are known, with high numbers in their formula. Fe₂₆C₆ doesn't look uncommon, though I didn't memorize exact numbers.

Steel is the best known and most complex alloy. At least 10 names of different iron-carbide crystals are used commonly.

But sure, 26 and 6 suggest atomic numbers, well done.