Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy

For more information about available characterization tools visit the Center for Nanostructure Characterization website at cncf.nanoscience.gatech.edu.

 

Fiber Optical Microscopy Analysis

Pulp and paper samples are disintegrated into segregated fibers which allows optical microscopy analysis to identify fiber species content and pulp type. A typical application is to determine the relative amounts of softwood and hardwood and species of each comprising the paper.  The method follows Tappi T 401. About 0.2 grams of material are required for one analysis. Fiber slurries are placed on a microscope slide, dried, stained, and fiber or vessel features are examined in detail at 100X and 400X  to identify species by comparison with  reference fiber catalogs.  Slides are scanned and fibers  counted by tally to calculate the percentage softwood or hardwood, mechanical or chemical pulp. The method of detailed comparison of fibers can be used to estimate the amount of recycle content.