Quantitative Microanalysis of Stainless Steel Carbides: X-Ray Absorption in (Fe,Cr,V,Mo) sub 23 C sub 6 and (Nb, V)C

摘要

X-ray absorption effects within metallurgical thin foils often complicate quantitative chemical microanalysis. Although absorption correction procedures are known, they become ambiguous when absorption occurs in more than one phase. A classic example of multiphase absorption occurs during the analysis of small second phase particles within a parent matrix. An excellent and often used solution to the problem of x-ray absorption in an adjacent parent phase is to physically remove the particle from the parent matrix. This is often accomplished by the use of extraction replicas. However, removing the particle from the matrix phase does not eliminate x-ray absorption within the extracted particle. It is the objective of this paper to show that quantitative x-ray microanalysis of extracted particles is not always routine. X-ray absorption within the extracted particles must be considered. Furthermore, standard absorption correction techniques can be shown to be, in many cases, suitable for treating the x-ray data generated within isolated particles. (ERA citation 06:029051)