Klupś Przemyslaw, Skerratt-Love Katrina, Kruger Albert A, George Jaime, Bell Anthony Martin Thomas, Bingham Paul A, Moody Michael P, Bagot Paul A J
Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK.
Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, UK.
Microsc Microanal. 2025 Feb 3;30(6):1083-1090. doi: 10.1093/mam/ozae059.
Atom probe tomography (APT) has been utilized to investigate the microstructure of two model borosilicate glasses designed to understand the solubility limits of phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5). This component is found in certain high-level radioactive defence wastes destined for vitrification, where phase separation can potentially lead to a number of issues relating to the processing of the glass and its long-term chemical and structural stability. The development of suitable focused ion beam (FIB)-preparation routes and APT analysis conditions were initially determined for the model glasses, before examining their detailed microstructures. In a 3.0 mol% P2O5-doped glass, both visual inspection and sensitive statistical analysis of the APT data show homogeneous microstructures, while raising the content to 4.0 mol% initiates the formation of phosphorus-enriched nanoscale precipitates. This study confirms the expected inhomogeneities and phase separation of these glasses and offers routes to characterizing these at near-atomic scale resolution using APT.
原子探针断层扫描技术（APT）已被用于研究两种模型硼硅酸盐玻璃的微观结构，旨在了解五氧化二磷（P2O5）的溶解度极限。在某些用于玻璃固化的高放国防废物中发现了该成分，相分离可能会引发一系列与玻璃加工及其长期化学和结构稳定性相关的问题。在研究模型玻璃的详细微观结构之前，首先确定了适用于它们的聚焦离子束（FIB）制备路线和APT分析条件。在掺杂3.0 mol% P2O5的玻璃中，APT数据的目视检查和灵敏统计分析均显示出均匀的微观结构，而将含量提高到4.0 mol%则会引发富磷纳米级沉淀物的形成。本研究证实了这些玻璃预期的不均匀性和相分离，并提供了使用APT在近原子尺度分辨率下对其进行表征的途径。
