Composition: 0.1% Cr, 0.5% Mn, 0.1% Ni, 0.2%Cu. Si and C unknown.
See also the ECC-image below
It seems to be Stainless Steel Alloy. But really hard to say anything specific with this kind of information.
It is definitely not SS. I thought it was some kind of tempered martensite, but steel is not my field of expertise.
A full chemistry (including the carbon) and the hardness would really help to sort this out. Your partial chemistry suggests it is a plain carbon steel.
Do you know anything about the Specific Gravity and Thermal Expansion co-efficient data of this? Then may be, some kind of effort can be make to sort it out !!!
This is a Low carbon steel (Non-alloy steel) like St37 steel but for more information you should refer to "Key to Steel" section of "Structural and constructional steels " and find equivalent standard code by chemical composition. I think is one of EN100xx steel grades.
As well as this, I would like to tell you for simple low carbon steels you do not need to use SEM or TEM methods to find composition and grade of steels. First and foremost, you must find chemical composition, hardness and refer to "Key to Steel" to find the grade of steels. Microscopy methods usually help you to find phases, cracks, defects, particles, find unknown materials(not for steels which have a comprehensive source of information like "Key to Steel") and other special aims.
This is NOT a stainless steel. SS generally have very high Cr (usually > 12 wt%) and sometimes Ni contents can be high if they have a duplex microstructure. Your alloy could be a formable low carbon steel such as DS-Type A. However, you at least need the carbon content to make a better guess! If you want to learn more about steels, I suggest you start with Prof De Cooman's notes which can be found via this link: http://mdlpostech.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=lecture&page=2&page=1
His lectures are also found in youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3C_L0ubdec&list=PLj4YiOgq320qDtHIHeOcUQ4bWwVM_jjzq
You can also check Prof Bhadeshia's website - this one has lots of stuff and is more useful when you know what you are looking for. http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans/
Nice question. From what part did you cut the sample (bolt, tube, etc.)? Is it microstructure or the surface of your sample? What etchant did you use? Do you know the thermal history (heat treatment) and hardness of your sample? Finally, is Fe the balance? Sorry for a number of questions, but the photo is really attractive.
Sorry for the delay. Thank you Thomas for the link to prof. De Coonans lectures. The picture is an electron channeling contrast (ECC) image of the polished surface of the sample. No etchant was used. Composition was determined by LA-ICP/MS which is basically non-destructive. Si is 0.3 - 0.6%. The sample has been heated to 200-300 Celsius for a short period of time.
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