Quantitative Analysis of TiWCN in Cemented Carbide : A Comparison of Spectroscopic Techniques

• Main Author: Olander, Petra
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för materialkemi 2010
• Subjects: quantitative; analysis; EELS; EDS; WDS; cemented carbide; spectroscopy; TEM
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-143490

The aim of this master thesis was to compare EELS in TEM with TEM-EDS and WDS-EPMA for quantitative analysis of γ-phase in cemented carbide. Especially, the quantification of the light elements nitrogen and carbon in compounds like TiCxN1-x is interesting, since this is problematic. The techniques were compared by acquiring spectra for quantification of two samples of cemented carbide containing γ-phase (Tix,W1-x)(CyN1-y) with different nitrogen and tungsten content. Also, a rigorous evaluation about how EELS spectra best is acquired and processed was performed in order to enable the comparison. Experimental results show that EELS gives satisfying results for TiC0.7N0.3 and that EELS is comparable with WDS-EPMA for quantification of nitrogen, carbon and titanium in (Tix,W1-x)(CyN1-y) when the atomic concentration of nitrogen is around 20%. However, EELS was not used for quantification of tungsten. Concluded is also that EELS and WDS should be considered as complementary rather than competing techniques.