Thin films of Fe, Ca and Mg were deposited on high purity wustite surfaces to study the mode of nucleation and growth of iron also to investigate the influence of impurities on the kinetics of metellization. The specimens were examined after reduction using the SEM to observe the shape of iron.
The results suggests that early nucleation followed by rapid growth causes theiron to grow outside the surface. CaO could promote the outer growth when it is concentrated in certain sites. On the other hand MgO seems to have no pronouced effect.
