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Last updated 27th Mar 2006

The wide range of techniques available in ETC can be used to characterise materials in terms of their physical and chemical properties.

 

· Characterization of surface texture, particulate morphology and element distribution of solid materials is obtained using AFM and SEM with EDX or WDX analysis.  High resolution imaging and advanced analysis are carried out with the Centre’s state-of-the-art field emission scanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM).

 

· Elemental composition of bulk materials and liquids can be determined using a non-destructive XRF technique capable of detecting elements above Sodium in the periodic table to a high sensitivity.

 

· Material structure can be established by metallography, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with selected area electron diffraction, or electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis on the FEG-SEM.

 

· Surface composition at atomic level is measured using either Auger or X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

 

· Material physical properties are measured in terms of hardness, tensile strength and thermal characteristics.

Characterization Facilities

 

UKAS accredited techniques

1. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

2. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FEG-SEM)

3. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

4. Energy dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDXA)

5. X-ray Fluorescence (XRF)

 

Additional techniques

 

6. X-ray Diffraction (XRD)

7. Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Analysis (WDXA)

8. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)

9. Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM)

10. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

11. Light Microscopy (LM)

12. Contact Angle Measurement

13. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)

14. UV/VIS/NIR Spectroscopy

15. Fatigue testing

ETCbrunel has a fully equipped on-site instrument room and associated preparation laboratories.  Below is a full list of the available equipment, for more details on potential applications please see our Analytical Services page or contact a member of our team.

In-House Facilities

We have recently acquired a Bruker D8 Advance X-ray Diffractometer with Bragg-Brentano geometry.  The instrument is fully equipped with Chromium, Copper and Molybdenum tubes to study the crystal structure of a wide range of materials.  Advanced components and software enable high signal-noise ratio, measurement of residual stress and analysis of texture, crystal size and micro-strain.

 

For more details on this equipment please contact:

Lorna Anguilano E-mail lorna.anguilano@brunel.ac.uk

New Facilities

We also have access to the following techniques, through reciprocal arrangements

16. Particle sizing

17. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

18. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA)

19. Mechanical Testing of materials

20. Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS)

21. Total X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF)

22. Mossbauer Spectroscopy

Associated Facilities