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Scanning electron microscopy |
| The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has become an indispensable tool in many fields of research, development, manufacturing and analysis. It is an excellent means to characterise materials and to explain materials behaviour. |
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| The Ceramics Research Centre houses a Jeol JSM-5900 LV SEM, which can operate in high as well as in low vacuum mode. The low vacuum mode allows observation of specimens which cannot be viewed at high vacuum due to water content or to their nonconductive surface. Additionally, the SEM at CRC is equipped with a NORAN energy dispersive system (EDS) and a wavelength dispersive spectrometer (WDS) to allow (semi-)quantitative micro analysis, to examine chemical composition. Magnifications up to 100.000x and chemical analysis on particles down to 2 mm can be reached. Analysis of microstructure and chemical composition is performed at mm scale on a broad range of material types: ceramics, metals, plastics, etc. Real life cases in the field of characterization, process control and post mortem research illustrate the versatility of this instrument. |
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| Post Mortem Research: Aluminium Penetration in Refractory Castables |
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| One of the general attack mechanisms on refractory materials is liquid metal penetration, leading to excessive wear. Aluminium penetration in the refractory lining of an aluminium melting furnace was studied using the SEM combined with EDS/WDS. Once penetrated the aluminium can oxidize, either by reaction with air or by reducing refractory components. When reacting with air it will lead to volume expansion and consequently to high mechanical stresses. With this technique the origin of the oxygen can be shown very elegantly in element maps. Nitrogen is used as a tracer element for air, giving evidence in this case that the oxygen originated from air. |
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