SEM-EDX

Womersley’s work with a local university to provide EDX Analysis with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). These results are then analysed to identify the principal elements found in samples of stone, brick and mortar where they are in distress for us to work out a strategy for dealing with the contamination and leachate that is found to assist specifiers and building owners with solutions for problems with their building.

Scanning electron microscopes employ electron beams in order to get information from a sample at the nanoscale. The main type of signal used is that are detected is the backscattered (BSE). Samples were mounted on separate 12 mm aluminium stubs using adhesive carbon pads. They are brought to focus separately on low vacuum mode, with an image captured for each at x25 magnification using 20.0 kV energy and back-scatter detection. EDX elemental profiles are acquired.