Thermodynamic analysis of the Co–Cr–C system

A reassessment of the thermodynamic description of the Co–Cr–C system was performed to take into account recent experimental information on the solubility of Co in Cr-based carbides. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations coupled with phonon calculations were performed to calculate the heat capacity and Gibbs energies of formation of stable and metastable carbides in the Co–Cr–C system as a function of temperature, within the limits of the Harmonic or the Quasi Harmonic Approximation. Resulting Gibbs energies were compared with earlier experimental studies and assessments, where calculated values for Cr23C6, Cr7C3 and Cr3C2 from the present work were seen to fall within the experimental scatter. The calculated heat capacity and Gibbs energy of formation as a function of temperature for the metastable Co3C2 compound together with recent experimental information was used in the evaluation of the thermodynamic parameters. As a result, the new and improved thermodynamic description accounts for the solubility of Co in M3C2 in contrast to previous descriptions, where this was neglected due to a complete lack of experimental information. Furthermore, a better representation of previously reported liquidus temperatures was achieved, without increasing the number of parameters in the liquid phase. Other relevant features of the phase diagram and thermochemical properties were also well represented.