RT journal article
T1 Induced damage during STEM-EELS analyses on acrylic-based materials for Stereolithography
A1 Valencia Liñán, Luisa María
A1 Mata Fernández, María de la
A1 Herrera Collado, Miriam
A1 Delgado González, Francisco Javier
A1 Hernández Saz, Jesús
A1 Molina Rubio, Sergio Ignacio
A2 Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica y Química Inorgánica
K1 STEM-EELS
K1 Acrylic resin
K1 Electron-beam damage
K1 Degradation mechanism
K1 Radiolysis
K1 Knock-on
AB (Scanning) transmission electron microscopy, (S)TEM, offers a powerful characterization tool based on electronmatterinteractions, highly valuable in materials science. However, the possible electron beam induced damageduring (S)TEM measurements hinders the analysis of soft materials, such as acrylic resins. Importantly, acrylicresins offer an appealing playground for the development of novel composites with customized properties andconvenient processing capabilities for 3D-printing technologies, including Stereolithography (SLA). There areseveral factors preventing the optimal performance of TEM measurements applied to acrylic resins, among whichwe focus on the quality of the analyzed specimen (i.e., compromise between thickness and robustness, to achieveelectron transparency while keeping the material integrity), particularly challenging when working with softmaterials; the electrostatic charging/discharging effects, resulting in sample drift and related noise/artefacts; andthe radiolysis and knock-on electron-induced damage, which directly degrade the material under study. Weexplore and compare different methodologies to obtain resin specimens suitable for (S)TEM analysis, employedfor the subsequent study of the electron–beam damage induced during STEM-EELS measurements. Furthermore,we propose likely underlying mechanisms explaining the acrylic resin degradation based on the different EELSmonitored signals. On one hand, we assess the evolution of the carbon and oxygen content, as well as the materialthinning as a function of the accumulated electron dose. On the other hand, we extract meaningful informationfrom the spectral shape of carbon and oxygen K-edges upon increasing electron doses, unravelinglikely degradation pathways. The earned understanding on the electron-beam induced damage and the determinationof critical doses provide a useful framework for the implementation of (S)TEM techniques as usefultools to help in the smart engineering of acrylic-based composites for SLA.
PB ELSEVIER
SN 0141-3910
YR 2022
FD 2022-09
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/27273
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/27273
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 22-sep-2026