Abstract
Standard sample preparation techniques of various metals, composites, ceramics and polymer specimens can be very time consuming (such as dimpling and ion milling etc.), yet still introroduce artifacts during specimen preparation. With many of these materials numerous hours and sometimes even days can be spent preparing samples for TEM studies. In the past, ultramicrotomy has been used primarily for biological applications, but over the years has been tried on various polymers, metal and ceramic powders, oxide layers, etc. The main concern has been deformation introduced to the specimen while cutting. This study will demonstrate successful ultramicrotomy over a variety of non-biological specimens.Materials chosen for this experiment consist of Rapidly Solidified (RS) Al-V powders, P-120 Carbon fibers, Silicon Carbide (MMC) fibers, Kevlar and an IC semiconductor chip. Routine SEM micrographs were taken of all material as-received. All the specimens were embedded using a low viscoscity resin, L. R. White (hard grade). They were microtomed with a diamond knife at a 55-60° cutting angle using an AO/Reichert Ultracut Ultramicrotome with a slow cutting speed of 0.4 mm/sec which obtained the best results. All sections were picked up on Hex 700TB Ni grids.
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