High-pressure Melting Curves of and Phases of Iron

Abstract

Statistical moment method (SMM) has been applied in combination with Lindemann melting criterion to investigate pressure effects on melting temperature of iron. Melting curves of phase with body-centered cubic structure and phase with face-centered cubic structure of iron have been derived up to pressure 13 GPa and 90 GPa, respectively. This work shows that melting curves of these two phases of iron are increasing functions of pressure, and the higher the pressure is the lower the slopes of melting curves are. Our results are compared with those of available experimental data to verify the developed theory. The efficiency of the SMM on the investigation of melting temperatures of and phases of iron allows us to believe that the present SMM scheme can be developed extensively to determine melting temperatures of other phases of iron as well as other materials.