Hello, this is a low carbon steel and Nital 2% is usually helpful, that contains of Ethanol and Nitric acid. But if some annealing treatment such as intercritical annealing done and Nital could not be efficient, then Picral is useful, it contains of Ethanol and Picric acid.

Hello, this is a low carbon steel and Nital 2% is usually helpful, that contains of Ethanol and Nitric acid. But if some annealing treatment such as intercritical annealing done and Nital could not be efficient, then Picral is useful, it contains of Ethanol and Picric acid.

Hello, you may also check this : https://www.metallographic.com/Metallographic-Etchants/Metallography-Low-carbon-steel-etchants.htm

hi

Nital is the appropriate etching reagent for carbon steel . It is prepared by mixing nitric acid with alcohol

this link gives the details

https://www.reagents.com/2299163/Product/Nital-Etchant-10-Nitric-Acid

Alavi, S. Habib, Hitesh D. Vora, Narendra B. Dahotre, and Sandip P. Harimkar. "Laser joining of plain carbon steel using Fe-based amorphous alloy filler powder." Journal of Materials Processing Technology 238 (2016): 55-64.

Nital is an appropriate etchant. Make sure that you dip a cotton swab in nital and rub it against your mirror polished surface for about 10-15 seconds(don't let it dry). Then clean it with water.

We use 2% Nital for low carbon steels. We use methanol rather than ethanol in the etchant. Exposure time varies and we monitor the progress of etching visually. However 10-15 seconds (as noted previously) is probably a typical range.