The binary systems FeS-MgS and FeS-MnS: Mössbauer spectroscopy of the B1 solid solutions and high-pressure phase equilibria

(Fe, Mn)S and (Fe, Mg)S solid solutions are examined to study and compare the properties of Fe²⁺ in two different B1-structured hosts, and also to study the relative stability of the B1 (NaCl) and B8 (NiAs) structures at high pressure. The Mössbauer spectra of (Fe, Mn)S and (Fe, Mg)S B1 solid solutions are quadrupole doublets at 298 K with parameters which vary smoothly with Fe²⁺ concentration. At 4.2 K the Mössbauer spectra of (Fe, Mn)S and Fe-rich (Fe, Mg)S B1 solid solutions are magnetically split into eight lines, but the spectra of Mg-rich (Fe, Mg)S solid solutions are quadrupole doublets. The line widths of the magnetic spectra are broad, consistent with a multiaxial spin arrangement. Some properties of the hypothetical phase FeS(B1) are calculated from the solid solution data; the phase is inferred to be relatively ionic compared to FeS(B8) and has a molar volume that is 7.2 percent larger than the B8 phase at 298 K. The large inferred volume difference between FeS(B1) and FeS(B8) should cause exsolution of a B8-structured phase from (Fe, Mn)S and (Fe, Mg)S B1 solid solutions at high pressure. This behaviour is confirmed experimentally at high pressure using X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy, and the results are correlated with thermodynamic calculations of the phase boundaries based on estimates of the volume and free energy differences between the B1 and B8 phases of FeS derived from atmospheric pressure data. The absence of an increase in solubility of Mg and Mn in the B8 phase with pressure suggests that any polymorphism in MnS and MgS at high pressure is unlikely to involve the B8 phase. Shock wave data for MgO and Fe_0.94O reported in the literature suggest similar behaviour in the system FeO-MgO at high pressure, namely exsolution of essentially pure FeO(hpp) from (Fe, Mg)O B1 solid solutions.