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Very low-concentration mixtures of gaseous Fe(CO)5 and neon are decomposed in a glow discharge, leaving powdered amorphous iron. A charcoal trap cooled at liquid nitrogen temperature selectively adsorbs the CO from decomposition under a constant pressure of neon. The product, stable at room temperature, has been characterized as iron by X-ray diffraction. The pair distribution function gives the distance ratios expected for an amorphous material (tetrahedral model) computed on the basis of dense random packing of hard spheres or molecular dynamics with a central potential. However, these models may be questioned in the case of a non-compact body-centred structure.