eli5: if steel is made by mixing carbon and iron at high temp, what happens when you add carbon to other metals like brass, copper or gold? does it make “brass steel”?

Question

eli5: if steel is made by mixing carbon and iron at high temp, what happens when you add carbon to other metals like brass, copper or gold? does it make “brass steel”?

In: 276

Answer 1

Carbon can dissolve in iron up to a few percent. Carbon cannot dissolve in most other useful metals very much. Even if it did whether it would then be a useful material depends on a host of factors. Carbon makes iron hard as the microscopic grains of iron-carbon compound stop the iron moving about at an atomic level (technically pinning disclinations if you want to search for it).