The advantage of carbon containing dual-phase iron aluminides is that they exhibit relative improvement in high temperature strength as well as reduction in probability of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) over the single-phase iron aluminides, which were the main impediment for the commercialisation of these materials. Owing to its practical and scientific importance a study on the dual-phase Fe3Al-Fe3AlC intermetallics is presented, which deals with the current status of research and developments, understanding of physical metallurgy, HE, oxidation resistance and thermal stability; and its limitation and future challenges. (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.