Micrograph 27 and full record
- Micrograph no
- 27
- Brief description
- Fe, C 0.9 (wt%), martensite
- Keywords
- alloy , carbon, iron, martensite , metal, metastable , steel
- Categories
- Metal or alloy
- System
- Fe-C-X
- Composition
- Fe, C 0.9 (wt%)
- Standard codes
- Reaction
- Processing
- Water quenched from 800 °C
- Applications
- Sample preparation
- Etched in 3% nital
- Technique
- Reflected light microscopy
- Length bar
- 40 μm
- Further information
- Martensite is a metastable supersaturated solid solution of C in steel. The excess carbon atoms sufficiently strain the matrix to produce a b.c.t (body centred tetragonal) structure. In order to minimise interfacial strain between the parent austenite and the transforming martensite the martensites assume a lath or needle shape.
- Contributor
- Prof T W Clyne
- Organisation
- Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
- Date
- 25/10/01
- Licence for re-use
- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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