Liu, Yijin; Meirer, Florian; Wang, Junyue; Requena, Guillermo; Williams, Phillip; Nelson, Johanna; Mehta, Apurva; Andrews, Joy C.; Pianetta, Piero

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (2012), 404(5), 1297-1301 CODEN: ABCNBP; ISSN: 1618-2642. English.

Detn. of the heterogeneous distribution of metals in alloy/battery/catalyst and biol. materials is critical to fully characterize and/or evaluate the functionality of the materials. Using synchrotron-based transmission x-ray microscopy (TXM), it is now feasible to perform nanoscale-resolution imaging over a wide x-ray energy range covering the absorption edges of many elements; combining elemental sensitive imaging with determination of sample morphol. Presented is an efficient and reliable methodol. to perform 3D elemental sensitive imaging with excellent sample penetration (tens of microns) using hard x-ray TXM. A sample of an Al-Si piston alloy was used to demonstrate the capability of the proposed method.