The method of removing hardly soluble organic material from metallic specimen used in fracture surface analysis by scanning electron microscope

Abstract

Epoxy resin attached to a fatigue fracture surface of Ti-Al-Nb alloy was removed using a removal method for hardly soluble organic material attached to metallic material, which has been developed by the author. In the removal method process, the epoxy resin attached to the fracture surface was treated with an organic solvent, `tetrahydrofuran', and cold concentrated sulfuric acid of nearly 100% purity. After the epoxy resin was removed from the fracture surface with the removal method, damage of the microscopic feature of the fracture surface was investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). For the first time, the degree of the removal of the epoxy resin with the method was investigated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in this research. After the removal, no damage of the fracture surface was found with SEM observation. In addition, C Kα derived from the epoxy resin was not detected with the EDS after removal. The result of the EDS analysis clarified that the epoxy resin was completely removed with the removal method.