The sample is piece a magnesium alloy (dimension: length - 20mm, width - 9.7mm, thickness - 3.5mm), which is coated with epoxy and silicone coating on each side of the surface. The coatings do not cover the entire surface of the alloy, but only an area of 5x5 mm.
I want to make a cross section of this sample and analyze the interface between the Mg-alloy and the coating. I can make the cross section with a slow cutting tool, which is available in our lab. However, afterwards, if I want to make a EDX of the cross section, do I have to polish the cross section? If so, what is a possible protocol to polish such cross section?
Thanks for your help!
Yes, you have to grind and polish the cross section. To do this, you must first embed the sawn off piece (cold embedding in epoxy resin). You can use ordinary SiC paper for grinding (number 320, 500 and 1000). I'm not sure about polishing, but maybe it will work with soft cloths without polishing agents.
Polishing is preferable. If layer of coating is thick enough you may skip embedding, but it's easier to work with embedded specimens. Manual for metallographic polishing you can find here:
https://www.metallographic.com/Brochures/Met-manual-2b.pdf
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