Ceramic Materials Characterization Using Small Angle Neutron Scattering Techniques

Abstract

Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) techniques are used to study microstructural phenomena in the range of 1 to 104 nm in size. Since they cover a wide range of sizes, these techniques are particularly useful in studies of ceramic processing and distributed damage in ceramics. While many metal and alloy systems have been studied using SANS techniques, few experiments have been published on ceramic materials. This is not surprising considering the difficulties inherent in analyzing SANS data on these materials. Often ceramics have several microstructural components such as residual voids from the sintering process, inclusions or impurities from starting materials, second phases, and microcracks or cavities from temperature and/or pressure treatments, as well as dislocations present in the material. All these effects will contribute to the observed small angle scattering of neutrons. It is important to either eliminate all effects except the one of interest or to identify the effects through complimentary studies that use other techniques such as electronic or optical microscopy. While these complementary techniques can identify defects, voids and second phases, SANS can quantify these effects throughout the bulk of the material in a nondestructive way.