What are some of the best ways to clean a sample surface after vibratory polishing (colloidal silica) as the final step. My sample is Al 6XXX series alloy.
Right after the vibratory polishing step, I rinsed the sample in warm water with soap rubbed using thumb, followed by ultrasonic cleaning using ethanol and finally drying with compressed air. When viewed in SEM, the surface still had presence of particles (probably silica).
Answers will be appreciated.
For EBSD polishing using col silica, I used surfactants, mostly liquid soap, to take away the silica followed by ultrasonic cleaning.
I recommend ultrasonic cleaning using a 5% (v/v) Micro Organic soap (Allied 148-10000) diluted in water. This soap/surfactant is very effective to extract the colloidal silica from the surface. After that, you can rinse the sample using the same solution (a fresh one, of course), followed by water and then methanol or isopropanol.