Iron ferrite(?)

[monotony]

I watched Armaggedon again and i heard from the film that the surface of the asteroid that they just landed on is made up of IRON FERRITE.

Hey does this really exist?
I mean Iron ferrite?
Or am I just hallucinating that this is one big chem nomenclature problem, a product of sci-fi film writers? 8-[

[Glom]

Welcome.

I wondered about that too. I mine, ferrite means iron so it's like talking about oxygen oxide or suphur sulphate.

[snowcelt]

I watched Armaggedon again and i heard from the film that the surface of the asteroid that they just landed on is made up of IRON FERRITE.

Hey does this really exist?
I mean Iron ferrite?
Or am I just hallucinating that this is one big chem nomenclature problem, a product of sci-fi film writers? 8-[

Welcome.

Watch out for ferrets, they are nasty creatures. As for iron ones, be afraid, very afraid. 8-[

[Swift]

Welcome monotony.

Ferrites absolutely exist. They are a particular crystal structure of metals, that very often contains iron (so an iron ferrite would be such a thing). Very often the iron is alloyed with other metals or with carbon. They can be found naturally and are also made synthetically (thus the ferrite cores in some computer memories). I have no idea if they are the form of iron in asteroids.

Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite) is the wikipedia definition of ferrites.

Here (http://www.matter.org.uk/matter_glossary/ferrite.htm) is a definition from a chemistry site.

Pure iron up to 912 ºC has a bcc structure and is known as alpha ferrite. Between 1394 ºC and the melting point of iron the bcc structure is now known as delta ferrite. Also found in carbon steel.

[chemcat]

Yes, I too saw the movie Armaggedon and heard the awful phrase "iron ferrite". Ferrite is any iron or iron compound with a specific crystal structure. Yes in chemistry this would be a true oxymoron. However, many non-chemists, including those who slept through GenChem don't always follow the nomenclature rules. Iron ferrite does refer to a group of iron oxides (ferrous and ferric oxides) often glumped together under another general term "rust".

[TheBlackCat]

If it was iron oxide it wouldn't be an "iron plate". Iron oxide is more of a salt than a metal.

[publius]

Here (http://www.matter.org.uk/matter_glossary/ferrite.htm) is a definition from a chemistry site.

Ah, a condensed version of the intricate Fe-C phase diagram. The wonders of the complexity of Fe-C ("steel" when the C percentage is within a certain range) never cease to amaze me. And this, start adding alloying elements, like chromium and nickel, and things get even more interesting. :lol:

What blows my mind is solid-state phase transitions, and how you can have a mixture of different solid phases together (as this where I learned the difference between "eutectoid" and "eutetic" ). I dabble with welding and metal working sort of as a hobby, and it just fascinates me to no end.

The interesting thing about iron is alpha-iron is magnetic, but austentite is not, but (provided the C concentration is low enough) it will back to the delta-phase which is magnetic again before melting.

I've done that with a torch and a magnet to watch for the phase transition.

-Richard

[trinitree88]

In the history of chemistry, there was plenty of consternation over rust. Proust eventually showed that pyrites ( FeS) had a definite composition, but iron oxide was usually a mixture of different oxides, depending on the conditions under which it formed. Richard's got it right...the possible inclusion of carbon as a trace alloy further complicated reducing iron from it's compounds....requiring a phase diagram for clarity.
For a meteor, agglomerating from a dust cloud of vague origin, the composition could vary wildly...hence ferrites.
There are regions in space where iron oxides, sulfides, silicates, .etc are exposed to large excesses of hydrogen at high temperature. The H reduces these compounds to atomic iron....and similar to vapor deposition technique....iron whiskers grow (Eli Dwek, NASA Goddard). When tiny particles of iron dust are able to vaporize and condense, in a cyclical manner, statistical mechanics comes into play. Given a small range of sizes of the original grains...it's more likely that an atom of iron will land on the surface of a large grain, than a small one...hence the larger grains grow, and the smaller ones shrink. In photography, this process is known as Ostwald ripening, and makes for a "faster" emulsion...fewer photons required for an exposure, but inherent loss of resolution in the image.(AgBr).
For iron, magnetic fields also come into play, hence the "whiskers"...which align with the ambient field. It is interesting to note that there have been solar system intrusions of iron-60 detected in deep marine sediments here, which are believed to be of supernovae origin, though many thought they would go no further inward than Mars.
Eventually the solar wind sweeps this intrusion outwards...still in a predominantly reducing H atmospere. As the composition of the incoming vs the outgoing flow at the heliopause is still a present subject of investigation, interpretation, and instrumentation...it's a bit of a reach to conclude that therefor there "must" be a diffuse veil of solar system aligned whiskers, for the equilibrium conditions for Ostwald ripening are nothing like the dark tanks at Eastman Kodak, and are not manipulable by us.Dwek believes the whisker stage is transient in terms of lifetime, but it is more than hundreds of years long. Several of the literature papers indicate that the interior of some supernova remnants emit spectra that are best fit by lots of iron whiskers.
The sun and most of it's proximate neighbor stars exist in a large old supernova remnant, this is known. The sun has a magnetic field. Iron has visited us in the last few supernovae excursions. If this was a real contribution to the CMB as Jerry Jensen posits, there is a definitive test to see if it's a contribution to the foreground....the polarity of the "axis of evil" will flip when the sun's magnetic field flips every ~22 years. Pete.

[SkepticJ]

If it was iron oxide it wouldn't be an "iron plate". Iron oxide is more of a salt than a metal.

Hematite isn't. Hematite is an iron oxide, therefor an iron ferrite. Hematite can have a hardness of at least a six on the Mohs scale. Six is just a little softer than quartz. I'd like to see a drill, even a carbide tipped one, go through a thick plate of quartz. Hematite is exactly what I thought was being referred to in the movie. Maybe that was their intention, maybe not. Either way Armaggedon has terrible science. Watch it for the humor or sickening, highly forced melodrama. I watch it for the humor.

[Eroica]

IRON FERRITE
You wouldn't want one of those running up the inside of your trouser leg ...

... oh, wait, I thought you said iron ferret! :wall:

[Tobin Dax]

You wouldn't want one of those running up the inside of your trouser leg ...

... oh, wait, I thought you said iron ferret! :wall:

ToSeeked. (http://www.bautforum.com/showpost.php?p=299861&postcount=3) :razz: ;)

[Eroica]

That's what I get for not bothering to read the thread! :o

[monotony]

i posted this topic 3 years ago -high school chemistry and sci-fi movies our stellar club. weird.
iron ferrite is funny. redundant. it's like saying oxygen oxide or something.

[Nowhere Man]

Welcome back, monotony. :)

Fred

[Noclevername]

Either way Armaggedon has terrible science. Watch it for the humor or sickening, highly forced melodrama. I watch it for the humor.

<Ahnold voice> "It's not a hu-mohr!" </Ahnold voice off>

[novaderrik]

wow.. monotony has 2 posts- both in the same thread that he started- spread out over a 3 year period.
that's gotta be SOME kind of a record, eh?

[tdvance]

Hmm---wouldn't ozone be "oxygen oxide"?

Todd

[Extravoice]

Well, there is such a thing as carbon carbon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforced_carbon-carbon) :)

[Tobin Dax]

Hmm---wouldn't ozone be "oxygen oxide"?

Todd
I think that "oxygen dioxide" would be better.

[tdvance]

It could be, but I think of "oxygen" as O_2, that being its most familiar form. When you oxidize it, you get O_3, a powerful oxidizer.