the silica aerogel was prepared by the acid–base sol–gel polymerization of tetraethylorthosilicate precursor followed by ambient pressure drying. the prepared silica aerogels were characterized by fourier transform infrared )ft-ir(, thermo-gravimetric and differential thermal analysis )tg/dta(, x-ray diffractometer )xrd(, energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis )edx(, brunauer–emmitt–teller (bet)...

The high pressure SEM (HPSEM) is an important tool for materials characterisation. The presence of a gaseous atmosphere inside the specimen chamber permits to limit the charging effect and to obtain image with specific electron detector. The electron beam scattering due to the introduction of the gas within the specimen chamber of the HP-SEM influences the image quality and the microanalysis re...

A comprehensive three-dimensional (3D) microanalysis procedure using a combined scanning electron microscope (SEM)/focused ion beam (FIB) system equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) has been developed. The FIB system was used first to prepare a site-specific region for X-ray microanalysis followed by the acquisition of an electron-beam generated X-ray spectral image. A sm...

A cryogenic microcalorimeter x-ray spectrometer is coupled to an FEI XL30 environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The microcalorimeter is designed to obtain high resolution broadband xray spectra in the energy range of 150 eV to 10 keV. An x-ray optic enhances the solid angle for x-ray energies between 150 eV and 2300 eV. This enables precise microanalysis with relatively low energy ...

Low voltage x-ray microanalysis, defined as being performed with an incident beam energy ≤5 keV, can achieve spatial resolution, laterally and in depth, of 100 nm or less, depending on the exact selection of beam energy and the composition of the target. The shallow depth of beam penetration, with the consequent short path length for x-ray absorption, and the low overvoltage, the ratio of beam ...