Iron - Properties - Price - Applications

About Iron

Iron is a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth’s outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust. Its abundance in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production by fusion in high-mass stars.

Summary

Element	Iron
Atomic number	26
Element category	Transition Metal
Phase at STP	Solid
Density	7.874 g/cm3
Ultimate Tensile Strength	540 MPa
Yield Strength	50 MPa
Young’s Modulus of Elasticity	211 GPa
Mohs Scale	4.5
Brinell Hardness	490 MPa
Vickers Hardness	608 MPa
Melting Point	1538 °C
Boiling Point	2861 °C
Thermal Conductivity	80.2 W/mK
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	11.8 µm/mK
Specific Heat	0.44 J/g K
Heat of Fusion	13.8 kJ/mol
Heat of Vaporization	349.6 kJ/mol
Electrical resistivity [nanoOhm meter]	96.1
Magnetic Susceptibility	N/A

Applications of Iron

Iron is used in numerous sectors such as electronics, manufacturing, automotive, and construction and building. Iron is the most widely used of all the metals, accounting for over 90% of worldwide metal produc0tion. Its low cost and high strength often make it the material of choice material to withstand stress or transmit forces, such as the construction of machinery and machine tools, rails, automobiles, ship hulls, concrete reinforcing bars, and the load-carrying framework of buildings. Since pure iron is quite soft, it is most commonly combined with alloying elements to make steel. Steels are iron–carbon alloys that may contain appreciable concentrations of other alloying elements. Adding a small amount of non-metallic carbon to iron trades its great ductility for the greater strength. Due to its very-high strength, but still substantial toughness, and its ability to be greatly altered by heat treatment, steel is one of the most useful and common ferrous alloy in modern use. There are thousands of alloys that have different compositions and/or heat treatments. The mechanical properties are sensitive to the content of carbon, which is normally less than 1.0 wt%.

Production and Price of Iron

Raw materials prices change daily. They are primarily driven by supply, demand and energy prices. In 2019, prices of pure Iron were at around 0.0675 $/kg.

Nowadays, the industrial production of iron or steel consists of two main stages. In the first stage, iron ore is reduced with coke in a blast furnace, and the molten metal is separated from gross impurities such as silicate minerals. This stage yields an alloy — pig iron. Pig iron, known also as crude iron, is produced by the blast furnace process and contains up to 4–5% carbon, with small amounts of other impurities like sulfur, magnesium, phosphorus, and manganese. The main mining areas for iron are China, Australia, Brazil, Russia, and Ukraine. Worlds annual iron ore production is about 1600 milion tonnes.

Source: www.luciteria.com

Mechanical Properties of Iron

Strength of Iron

In mechanics of materials, the strength of a material is its ability to withstand an applied load without failure or plastic deformation. Strength of materials basically considers the relationship between the external loads applied to a material and the resulting deformation or change in material dimensions. In designing structures and machines, it is important to consider these factors, in order that the material selected will have adequate strength to resist applied loads or forces and retain its original shape. Strength of a material is its ability to withstand this applied load without failure or plastic deformation.

For tensile stress, the capacity of a material or structure to withstand loads tending to elongate is known as ultimate tensile strength (UTS). Yield strength or yield stress is the material property defined as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically whereas yield point is the point where nonlinear (elastic + plastic) deformation begins.

Ultimate Tensile Strength of Iron

Ultimate tensile strength of Iron is 540 MPa.

Yield Strength of Iron

Yield strength of Iron is 50 MPa.

Modulus of Elasticity of Iron

The Young’s modulus of elasticity of Iron is 211 GPa.

Hardness of Iron

In materials science, hardness is the ability to withstand surface indentation (localized plastic deformation) and scratching. Brinell hardness test is one of indentation hardness tests, that has been developed for hardness testing. In Brinell tests, a hard, spherical indenter is forced under a specific load into the surface of the metal to be tested.

Brinell hardness of Iron is approximately 490 MPa.

The Vickers hardness test method was developed by Robert L. Smith and George E. Sandland at Vickers Ltd as an alternative to the Brinell method to measure the hardness of materials. The Vickers hardness test method can be also used as a microhardness test method, which is mostly used for small parts, thin sections, or case depth work.

Vickers hardness of Iron is approximately 608 MPa.

Scratch hardness is the measure of how resistant a sample is to permanent plastic deformation due to friction from a sharp object. The most common scale for this qualitative test is Mohs scale, which is used in mineralogy. The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample of mineral to scratch another mineral visibly.

Iron is has a hardness of approximately 4.5.

Iron – Crystal Structure

A possible crystal structure of Iron is body-centered cubic structure.

In metals, and in many other solids, the atoms are arranged in regular arrays called crystals. A crystal lattice is a repeating pattern of mathematical points that extends throughout space. The forces of chemical bonding causes this repetition. It is this repeated pattern which control properties like strength, ductility, density, conductivity (property of conducting or transmitting heat, electricity, etc.), and shape. There are 14 general types of such patterns known as Bravais lattices.

Crystal Structure of Iron

Strength of Elements

Elasticity of Elements

Hardness of Elements

Thermal Properties of Iron

Iron – Melting Point and Boiling Point

Melting point of Iron is 1538°C.

Boiling point of Iron is 2861°C.

Note that, these points are associated with the standard atmospheric pressure.

Iron – Thermal Conductivity

Thermal conductivity of Iron is 80.2 W/(m·K).

The heat transfer characteristics of a solid material are measured by a property called the thermal conductivity, k (or λ), measured in W/m.K. It is a measure of a substance’s ability to transfer heat through a material by conduction. Note that Fourier’s law applies for all matter, regardless of its state (solid, liquid, or gas), therefore, it is also defined for liquids and gases.

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Iron

Linear thermal expansion coefficient of Iron is 11.8 µm/(m·K)

Thermal expansion is generally the tendency of matter to change its dimensions in response to a change in temperature. It is usually expressed as a fractional change in length or volume per unit temperature change.

Iron – Specific Heat, Latent Heat of Fusion, Latent Heat of Vaporization

Specific heat of Iron is 0.44 J/g K.

Heat capacity is an extensive property of matter, meaning it is proportional to the size of the system. Heat capacity C has the unit of energy per degree or energy per kelvin. When expressing the same phenomenon as an intensive property, the heat capacity is divided by the amount of substance, mass, or volume, thus the quantity is independent of the size or extent of the sample.

Latent Heat of Fusion of Iron is 13.8 kJ/mol.

Latent Heat of Vaporization of Iron is 349.6 kJ/mol.

Latent heat is the amount of heat added to or removed from a substance to produce a change in phase. This energy breaks down the intermolecular attractive forces, and also must provide the energy necessary to expand the gas (the pΔV work). When latent heat is added, no temperature change occurs. The enthalpy of vaporization is a function of the pressure at which that transformation takes place.

Melting Point of Elements

Thermal Conductivity of Elements

Thermal Expansion of Elements

Heat Capacity of Elements

Heat of Fusion of Elements

Heat of Vaporization of Elements

Iron – Electrical Resistivity – Magnetic Susceptibility

Electrical property refers to the response of a material to an applied electric field. One of the principal characteristics of materials is their ability (or lack of ability) to conduct electrical current. Indeed, materials are classified by this property, that is, they are divided into conductors, semiconductors, and nonconductors.

Electrical Resistivity of Iron

Electrical resistivity of Iron is 96.1 nΩ⋅m.

Electrical conductivity and its converse, electrical resistivity, is a fundamental property of a material that quantifies how Iron conducts the flow of electric current. Electrical conductivity or specific conductance is the reciprocal of electrical resistivity.

Magnetic Susceptibility of Iron

Magnetic susceptibility of Iron is N/A.

In electromagnetism, magnetic susceptibility is the measure of the magnetization of a substance. Magnetic susceptibility is a dimensionless proportionality factor that indicates the degree of magnetization of Iron in response to an applied magnetic field.