Investigation of the microstructure of an aqueously corroded zinc wire by data-constrained modelling with multi-energy X-ray CT

Abstract

The compositional microstructure of a zinc sample that has been subjected to aqueous oxidation has been investigated using a data-constrained modelling (DCM) approach combined with multi-energy X-ray micro computed tomography (CT) data. High-resolution X-ray CT data sets were acquired at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) at beam energies of 9 and 10.5 keV. CT images were used to reconstruct the three dimensional chemical compositional distribution via the DCM approach, with spatial resolution at the order of a micron. The results indicate that the interface between zinc and zinc oxide is characterized by a triple layer where the innermost layer consists of zinc and zinc oxide and the outer layers of zinc oxide with differing density.