What is Iron?

What is Steel?
Iron is a chemical element with
symbol Fe and atomic number 26.
It is a metal in the first transition
series.

https://sciencenotes.org/printable-periodic-table/ (2017-05-10)
What is Iron?
What is Steel?
Iron represents an example of allotropy in a metal.

Temperature_celsius
There are at least four allotropic forms of iron, known as α, γ, δ,
and ε.

As molten iron cools past its freezing point of 1538°C, it crystallizes

into its δ allotrope, which has a body-centered cubic (bcc) crystal (bcc)
structure.

As it cools further to 1394°C, it changes to its γ-iron allotrope,

a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal structure, or austenite.

At 912°C and below, the crystal structure again becomes the bcc α-
(fcc)
iron allotrope, or ferrite.
What is Iron? Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very
low carbon (less than 0.08% C) content.
What is Steel?
Steel is an alloy of iron and other elements,
primarily carbon (in the range of 0.08 to 2.1%
The property of iron changes to a large extent by
C), because of its high tensile strength, yet
making alloy with carbon and other elements.
malleable and flexible.

Cast iron is the iron-carbon alloy with a higher

than 2.1% carbon content with lower melting
point than steel and good castability properties.

Pig iron is the intermediate

product of smelting iron ore, which has a very
high carbon content, typically around 4.5% C.
Reference

#1 https://sciencenotes.org/printable-periodic-table/ (2017-05-10)
#2 https://www.slideshare.net/bravetiger1964/lecture-11-metals-and-
its-alloys-their-crystalline-structure-and-properties (2017-05-10)