In spite of the fact that I have been in the polymer science business for more than 30 years and have seen and even evaluated several SEM micrographs of polymers, blends and composites, I always feel a bit uneasy about them as I realized that REAL experts interpret such micropgraphs much more intelligently than I can do. It is not only about diffaction artefacts, as in TEM (which a broad separate subject by itself) but also about interpreting minor failure porcesses (brittleness, toughness, kinking etc.), interfacial behavior (in addition to the chunks of polymers on a broken fiber) and several other phenomena which are useful in interpreting the microscopic processes. I woudl appreciate if expert colleagues would share with us examples and interpretation which may be remembered by us, not being experts in this special field. It may be useful not only for younger students but even for experienced scientists. If you can quote good reviews on such issues, it would be also appreciated.
Dear colleague Prof. Dr. Gyorgy Banhegyi
Have a nice time and good day.
Peace be up on you.
The three attached files give many details about the five mentioned items in my answer
I wish this is useful and help you.
Yours
A. El-Denglawey
Respected Gyorgy Banhegi,
Determine the morphological aspects of experimental sample.[ Surface morphology, grain size, shape, etc].It helps us to calculate the particle size. It also helps us cross-sectional information of the experimental object. Not single SEM & TEM not get full picture, if you orchestra this another data interpretation tool & statistical software that enhance your interpretation.
EDS system mostly realm of material of material science and nano-technology.Standard less method using for quantitative purpose is new trend. Simultaneously scanning of element with proper design of experiment, If straight peak observed not problem, getting overlapping peak ,using deconvolutin applied multivariate linear regression (MLR). Now mapping and image processing also new trend to interpret SEM & TEM data.
This is my personnel view .
Dear Dr. Gyorgy Banhegyi,
I believe that the interpretation of SEM images is a big challenge for materials researchers. Personally, as a young researcher, I'm very interested in this field in order to analyze the changing of insulation morphology due to aging. I found a very interesting book which provides a basic understanding of the principles of the different microscopic techniques with many examples. Please find the document in the following link (The full-text will be sent to your inbox in case you request) :
Best regards.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-540-36352-1
Dear Youcef, thank you for your answer. I am afraid, however, the dowloading or sending this book would violate the copyright law, nevertheless I will try to find it in libraries. Gyorgy
Dear colleague Prof. Dr. Gyorgy Banhegyi
Have a nice time and good day.
Peace be up on you.
Much information could be deduced from the SEM micro-graphs as:
1- The determination of thickness.
2- The elements concentration (EDS)
3- The calculation of grain size [important notice: the SEM micro-graph gives the grain size while the particle or crystallite size could be obtained from (TEM not SEM)]
4- The property of porosity (Pores density).
5- The surface morphology (structural properties) could be described; smooth or rough according to the shape and the size of grain size. The surface morphology will be smooth if the shape of grain size is regular and the size of grains is uniform in this condition you will get a material with low surface and grain boundary scattering and the obtained material will have high conductivity and high transmittance, low reflectance and low absorption. The surface morphology will be rough if the shape of grain size is irregular and the size of grains is non uniform in this condition you will get a material with high surface and grain boundary scattering and the obtained material will have low conductivity and low transmittance, high reflectance and high absorption. And also the all optical and dielectric and electrical properties could be described.
I wish this is useful and help you.
Yours
A. El-Denglawey
Dear colleague Prof. Dr. Gyorgy Banhegyi
Have a nice time and good day.
Peace be up on you.
The three attached files give many details about the five mentioned items in my answer
I wish this is useful and help you.
Yours
A. El-Denglawey
Dear Dr El-Denglawey, thank you ver much for your detailed answer and for the file sent. I will study them carefully Gyorgy
Dear Prof. Dr. Gyorgy Banhegyi,
It's very interesting to interpret the SEM micrographs. I have little experience with SEM micrographs because i am working in the area of polymer composites.
1. We can see the surface morphology of fibers about its smoothness and roughness.
2. As by the previous answers, we can see the presence of porosity and voids presents in the materials.
3. Morphological analysis of fractured materials such as fiber fracture, debonding between matrix and fibers, crack path.
4. Particle size and diameter of fibers.
5. Interfacial adhesion between fiber and matrix.
Kindly find some of papers i have attached you can get more info.
i do have some problem in interpreting SEM images. These images show frozen dried gel blocks which is characterized by SEM. Gel blocks are formed with pectin polymer using different types of cross linking agents. Calcium carbonat and calcium phosphat.. by gels with calcium carbonat i can see more cavities than of calcium phosphat. but thats pretty much it i can say.
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