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Sample Preparation

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A Beginners' Guide to Scanning Electron Microscopy

Abstract

One of the primary reasons why scanning electron microscopy is hugely popular among scientists is that a large variety of specimens can be examined directly with slight or no sample preparation. This allows fast and convenient analysis of surface topography without the possibility of introducing any artifact into the material. While sample preparation is not a requirement, it does become necessary depending on the type of material examined and the nature of the information that needs to be derived from it. Irrespective of the material analyzed, the sample has to be of dimensions that can be accommodated within the specimen chamber of the SEM, and it also has to be sufficiently conductive to enable grounding of the incoming electron beam. The goal of any sample preparation technique is to reveal the fine details of the surface structure of materials without any alteration or introduction of extraneous elements for eventual examination in the SEM. This chapter is organized on the basis of the types of materials that need to be prepared for analysis in the SEM. These include metals, alloys, ceramics, geological (rocks, minerals) and building materials (cement concrete), polymers, and biological materials. Detailed sample preparation techniques are found in the literature [1, 2].

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  • 09 August 2023

    A correction has been published.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Engineering Research, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Anwar Ul-Hamid

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  1. Anwar Ul-Hamid
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Ul-Hamid, A. (2018). Sample Preparation. In: A Beginners' Guide to Scanning Electron Microscopy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98482-7_8

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