Please mention each step.
I have tried Sic papers (800-2500) for wet polishing, each time polishing wears at a different angle so it is very difficult achieve one plain plane without scratches. Also tried to remove scratches by Colloidal Silica and Diamond Paste for lapping.
Excuse me Sir, but which hardness have the sample? When lower is the hardness, more defects appear over the polish surface.
Independently you need to take care with the contamination.
Please see https://www.researchgate.net/post/Which_is_the_best_method_of_sample_preparation_for_Magnesium_alloy_EBSD_Mechanical_polishing_or_electro-polishing
For solders which are very soft only ion etching works. Any mechanical polishing only implements new defect.
@Daniel Martinez Krahmer
The hardness of material is aprox. 2 BHN.
Yes, I agree that as hardness decreases polishing gets difficult.
And contamination is a big problem observed in those materials which we cold mounted.
@Gert Nolze
Thank you for recommendation, will search for ion etching.
Dear Harishwar Kale,
Solder alloys are soft in nature. Proper care is necessary during polishing because the surface may get extra scratches. Cut the properly design alloy into pieces and mount them into Bakelite for proper handling and to avoid any distortion. To remove the oxidized layers and big scratches use metallurgical silicon carbide (SiC) water proof sand papers in grit size 350, 600, 800, and 1200 and even more fine. To avoid damage to surface when heat is generated during sand paper process, use tap water for lubrication. After SiC sand paper, the polishing process with polycrystalline diamond suspension as the abrasive particle size of 6 μm, 1 μm and 0.25 μm on cotton silk paper should be used to give extra shine to the surface. Clean the sample with distilled water to remove any residue left during polishing. Finally, etched the samples with 95% ethanol and 5% hydrochloric acid solution. (Note: different alloys have different etching composition and etching time). Put the samples in sputter coater and vacuum evaporator for gold coating to make it conductive and use Scan electron microscope to take images at different location and magnification.
For more details, read the section “Material and methods” of the Paper:
Article Impact of Thermal Aging on the Intermetallic Compound Partic...
I hope this will help you.
Did you try Electropolishing?
This is a good reference to get started:
Article Pit-free electropolishing of aluminum and its application fo...
I seem to remember reading somewhere a jet of gas such as Nitrogen or Argon can be used to polish at the atomic level. Ultrasonic polishing may also work.
Reguards,
Andy
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