Oxidation of metals and alloys. Part 3.—Mössbauer spectrum and structure of wustite

The Mössbauer spectra of samples of wustite of three different compositions have been examined at room temperature. Three Lorentzian lines have been fitted to the experimental data. Peak area ratios have been used to show that the spectra consist of two quadrupole split pairs of lines whose high velocity components overlap. The centre shifts of the two pairs show that they do not simply originate from ferrous and ferric ions. It is suggested that one of the two pairs is associated with electronic-exchange between ions on octahedral sites, and the other with ions on octahedral and tetrahedral sites.