Characterization of iron meteorites by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, magnetization measurements, and Mössbauer spectroscopy: Gibeon IVA

1M. V. GORYUNOV,2G. VARGA,2Z. DANKHAZI,3I. FELNER,1A. V. CHUKIN,4E. KUZMANN,4Z. HOMONNAY,1V. I. GROKHOVSKY,1M. I. OSHTRAKH
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [doi: 10.1111/maps.13984]
1Institute of Physics and Technology, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation
2Department of Materials Physics, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary
3Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
4Laboratory of Nuclear Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

Gibeon IVA iron meteorite fragment was characterized using optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-raydiffraction (XRD), magnetization measurements, and M€ossbauer spectroscopy. Opticalmicroscopy and SEM made on the polished section of the meteorite, show the presence ofa-Fe(Ni, Co) andc-Fe(Ni, Co) phases and plessite structures. There are no troilite inclusionsobserved in the studied section. EDS studies indicate some variations in the Ni concentrations:(i) within thea-Fe(Ni, Co) phase in the range~5.00.1–~7.50.1 at% and (ii) within thec-Fe(Ni, Co) phase in the range~26.00.2–~36.10.2 at%. The latter Ni concentrationrange indicates the presence of small amount of the paramagneticc-phase in addition to theferromagneticc-phase. EDS also shows that Ni content in two plessite structures is varying inthe range~16–37 at%, which can indicate the presence of only thea2-Fe(Ni, Co) andc-Fe(Ni,Co) phases in the duplex plessite structure. This may be a result of thec-phase decompositionwith the incomplete martensitic transformation:c?a2+cdue to a faster cooling rate. XRDindicates the presence of~1.3 wt% of thec-Fe(Ni, Co) phase in Gibeon VIA. The saturationmagnetization moment of 185(2) emu g1obtained also confirms the presence of phases withlow and high Ni concentrations. The most appropriate fit of the Gibeon IVA M€ossbauerspectrum demonstrates the presence of five magnetic sextets and one paramagnetic singlet whichare assigned to the ferromagnetica2-Fe(Ni, Co),a-Fe(Ni, Co),c-Fe(Ni, Co), and paramagneticc-Fe(Ni, Co) phases. The relative average Fe contents in these phases are: 13.4% in thea2-Fe(Ni, Co) phase, 78.3% in thea-Fe(Ni, Co) phase, and 8.3% in the ferromagnetic andparamagneticc-Fe(Ni, Co) phases.

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