The application of X‐ray microscopy in materials science

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Abstract
SUMMARY: X‐ray microscopy is a form of high resolution radiography that uses low‐energy X‐rays (≤10 keV) to enhance the contrast between light elements such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. As performed on compact laboratory equipment the technique can achieve spatial resolutions of roughly 1 μm in virtually any material given that the specimen is sufficiently thin (typically 0·2–2 mm) to be adequately transparent to low‐energy X‐rays. Notwithstanding that the technique has lately found favour in biomedical radiology, its considerable potential in other fields, notably the materials sciences, remains largely unexploited.The scope and potential of laboratory X‐ray microscopy in the materials sciences is demonstrated here by its application to ceramics, elastomers, coal‐chars and reinforced composites. In all cases the technique provided valuable microstructural characterization often unobtainable by any other non‐destructive method. These examples demonstrate that laboratory X‐ray microscopy offers much to the materials sciences and deserves a wider application than is current.