Nital
Sign in to savethumb|SEM micrograph of lamellar pearlite in a eutectoid (0.8% carbon) steel after annealing. Nital etch. Nital is a solution of nitric acid and alcohol commonly used for etching of metals. It is especially suitable for revealing the microstructure of carbon steels. The alcohol can be methanol or ethanol.
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thumb|SEM micrograph of lamellar pearlite in a eutectoid (0.8% carbon) steel after annealing. Nital etch. Nital is a solution of nitric acid and alcohol commonly used for etching of metals. It is especially suitable for revealing the microstructure of carbon steels. The alcohol can be methanol or ethanol.
Mixtures of ethanol and nitric acid are potentially explosive. This commonly occurs by gas evolution, although ethyl nitrate can also be formed. Methanol is not liable to explosion but it is toxic.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Nital” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.