Compositional Analysis
ELEMENTAL AND MOLECULAR COMPOSITION
Composition Testing Benefits:
For polymeric materials, FT-IR provides the ability to identify the polymer type and identify major additives in the material such as flame retardants, minerals, and molding performance improvement compounds. The elemental analysis provided by EDS can also complement the identification and physical distribution for polymeric material additives.
For metallic materials, elemental analysis by EDS provides information to identify contaminates, the composition of applied surface finishes, and degradation through corrosion processes. The alloy composition analysis by GDS provided metal alloy composition confirmation.
For composite materials such as printed circuit board (PCB) components and complex components, elemental analysis by EDS provides information to also identify contaminates and confirm the composition for structures.
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR):
The material analysis method Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was provided by a Varian 4100 spectrometer and a diamond attenuated total reflectance (ATR) sample holder. The ATR also has the option of using a geranium crystal for analysis on samples that show absorbance artifacts when using the diamond ATR crystal. The measured FT-IR spectra represent a distinct pattern for the molecular structure of the analyzed materials. The FT-IR technique is more sensitive to the organic types of molecular bonding than inorganic bonds like those found in minerals. This pattern provides a result that can be matched using a database of reference FT-IR spectra. The lab uses the database software called KnowItAll® from the company BioRad. The BioRad software and database contains >200,000 searchable reference spectra.
Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS)
The energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) results were provided by the EDAX Apollo X spectrometer coupled to the SEM. The EDS provides elemental detection of the surface being visualized by the SEM. The elemental detection is provided as a spectrum, line scan, or mapping of the area surface with the location of the detected elements shown by color with the variation of intensity directly proportional to concentration. The elements detected will be identified using the element symbol and x-ray line.
Glow Discharge Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (GDS)
The Glow Discharge Spectroscopy (GDS) was performed using the Leco GDS 500A spectrometer. The specified GDS has the ability to analyze the following material types within common alloy ranges: copper, low alloy iron, stainless steel, zinc, aluminum, and silver-based contact materials.