Use of high-resolution FESEM to study solid-state phase transformation and reactions

High-resolution field-emission-gun scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) has recently emerged as an extremely powerful method for characterizing the micro- or nanostructure of materials. The development of high efficiency backscattered-electron detectors has increased the resolution attainable with backscattered-electrons to almost that attainable with secondary electrons. This makes the amount of material that can be sampled with SEM for a given measurement many orders of magnitude greater than with transmission electron microscopy. In the experiment, FESEM is used to study the α-Fe2O3 enhanced or seeded solid-state phase transformation of sol-gel alumina and solid-state reactions in the NiO/α-Al2O3 system.