Martensite [SEP] named after
Martensite
Martensite is a very hard form of steel crystalline structure. It is named after the German Adolf Martens (1850–1914). By analogy the term can also refer to any crystal structure that is formed by diffusionless transformation. Martensite includes a class of hard minerals that occur as lath- or plate-shaped crystal grains.
Properties.
Martensite is formed in carbon steels by the rapid cooling (quenching) of the austenite form of iron at such a high rate that carbon atoms do not have time to diffuse out of
martensitic steels, alloys based on bainite often do not need further heat treatment after transformation in order to optimise strength and toughness.
History.
In the 1920s Davenport and Bain discovered a new steel microstructure which they provisionally called martensite-troostite, due to it being intermediate between the already known low-temperature martensite phase and what was then known as troostite (now fine-pearlite). This microstructure was subsequently named bainite by Bain's colleagues at the United States Steel Corporation, although it took some time for the name