Data-fusion of high resolution X-ray CT, SEM and EDS for 3D and pseudo-3D chemical and structural characterization of sandstone

W. de Boever , Hannelore Derluyn (1) , D. van Loo , L. van Hoorebeke , V. Cnudde

1 UGENT - Universiteit Gent = Ghent University

When dealing with the characterization of the structure and composition of natural stones, problems of representativeness and choice of analysis technique almost always occur. Since feature-sizes are typically spread over the nanometer to centimeter range, there is never one single technique that allows a rapid and complete characterization. Over the last few decades, high resolution X-ray CT (μ-CT) has become an invaluable tool for the 3D characterization of many materials, including natural stones. This technique has many important advantages, but there are also some limitations, including a tradeoff between resolution and sample size and a lack of chemical information. For geologists, this chemical information is of importance for the determination of minerals inside samples. We suggest a workflow for the complete chemical and structural characterization of a representative volume of a heterogeneous geological material. This workflow consists of combining information derived from CT scans at different spatial resolutions with information from scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Génie mécanique [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]

W. de Boever, Hannelore Derluyn, D. van Loo, L. van Hoorebeke, V. Cnudde. Data-fusion of high resolution X-ray CT, SEM and EDS for 3D and pseudo-3D chemical and structural characterization of sandstone. Micron, 2015, 74, pp.15-21. ⟨10.1016/j.micron.2015.04.003⟩. ⟨hal-01804415⟩