Acquisition of a Scanning Electron Microscope with Specialized Crystalline Orientation and Particle Analysis Capability (Materials Research)

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A new scanning electron microscope will be purchased which will include specialized rapid crystallite orientation and particle analysis capability needed for on-going research programs in four major groups at Brigham Young University. The general improvement in resolution over the present facility would also serve well many other faculty and graduate students. The microscope will be equipped with new low-light electron backscattering diffraction technology recently developed at Bristol University. This technology permits rapid crystallographic orientation of small crystals. The Materials Research Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering has a critical need for this capability in order to advance a new theory of mesostructure in polycrystalline materials which is expected to have numerous applications in predicting the properties and optimal processing for metal and ceramic alloys. This technology is not presently installed at any other laboratory in the United States. The microscope will also be equipped with a state-of-the-art microchemical analysis system capable of computer controlled multiple particle analysis of the chemistry and morphology of crystallites and particles. The present scanning electron microscope at BYU is limited to single particle chemical analysis with a resolution of about 2 micrometers. The proposed system offers a four-fold improvement in the resolution of sized and composition for multiple particle images. In our current studies of the chemistry and morphology of carbon deposits in catalyst pellets and pores (BYU Catalysis Laboratory) the improved resolution and multiple-particle statistics are necessary to identify the important mechanisms of catalyst deactivation.