I am interested in determining particle size of powder used to make a porous PM part. Particles are on the scale of 100nm to a few um. Does anyone in the group have thoughts how to go about it other than doing SEM followed by extensive image? The material has lots of porosity and I am interested in getting the size of the particles in it.
thanks in advance.
Different particle size analyzer is available to measure the particle size from few nanometer to micrometer range. FESEM and TEM also can be used for the same. Small Angel X-ray Scattering (SAXS) data can be used to measure the particle size as well as the shape of the particles.
Your question is not clear. In a sintered part there are no particles anymore. In the powder form you can use laser scattering analysis. It will work fine with the size range you mentioned.
All, thanks for your replies.
Just to elaborate, the so-called sintered part is a metallic sponge produced by sintering fine particles. it is very porous so maintains many of the original particles. any of the laser scattering methods is not possible. I know I can do SEM/FESEM followed by image analysis which will require lots of images and then analysis of all those. SAXS might be a possibility. Anything else anyone can suggest which will provide a better idea about the particle size distribution in this porous material.
thanks
ok - you have a porous part which contains entrapped particles and you are interested in particle size. If all pores are accessible you can do a mercury intrusion porosity experiment. Perform 2 runs and you can get a particle size distribution.
Michael, thanks for your response. What do you mean by 2 runs of porosimetry?
Dear Javaid,
I did this on polished metallographic samples analysed with Image Pro software from Media Cybernetics. They have embedded algorithms to calculate roundness, Ferret diam. and mean pore size. I hope it helps. Good luck! Luiza
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