Formation of Beryllium Carbide during the Corrosion of Beryllium in Carbon Monoxide and in Carbon Dioxide Gas

Abstract

PREVIOUS workers1 have concluded from a comparison of the reaction between beryllium in dry carbon dioxide at 650° C. and in dry oxygen at 650° C. under kinetic conditions that the higher gain in weight of the specimen in carbon dioxide was due to the formation of beryllium carbide, which rendered the beryllium oxide non-protective. However, no metallographic evidence for the deposition on to the specimen of carbon, either as elementary carbon or as carbide, was given to support their hypothesis.