A comparison between quantitative EELS and APFIM microanalysis of carbonitride grains in cermets

Microstructural characterisation of cermet materials is often performed usi ng scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in combination with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Due to th e poor detection efficiency of light elements with EDX, carbon and nitrogen cannot be properly quantified. Instead, atom-probe field-ion microscopy (A PFIM) has been used to accurately determine the content of light elements. However, this is a time-consuming method, especially when taking into accou nt the fact that several APFIM specimens have to be prepared in a controlle d way to analyse all phases present in one TEM specimen. Therefore, it is o f interest to evaluate whether transmission electron energy-loss spectrosco py (EELS) can be considered an alternative to APFIM for light element analy sis. In this paper, we make a comparison of results from APFIM and quantita tive EELS microanalysis of carbon and nitrogen in Ti(C, N)-based cermets. O ur results show that the agreement between the two methods is good enough t o permit most future analyses of light elements in these materials to be pe rformed in the TEM using EELS. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.