CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CHEMICAL BONDING IN INNER LAYERS OF COMPOSITE-MATERIALS

The efficiency of near edge structure investigations in electron energ y loss spectroscopy (EELS) is discussed for characterizing the chemica l bonding of elements present in the interfacial zone in fibre/matrix composites at nanometre resolution. Two different examples of correspo nding analyses are given for a SiC-fibre reinforced borosilicate glass . In particular, the chemical bonding between silicon and carbon or ox ygen (e.g. SiC, SiO2 and SiOxCy), respectively, is characterized. The results have been attained in a fingerprint manner by comparing the fi ne structure measured from a material of unknown stoichiometry to that of a standard specimen. In addition, a possibility is demonstrated to image the chemical bonding by energy-filtered microscopy using energy loss near edge structures (ELNES).