THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRON MICROSCOPY FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF RAW MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS OF THE PLASMA SYNTHESIS OF BORON-CARBON-CHROMIUM COMPOUNDS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of powdered raw materials (chromium, its oxide and chloride, boron), micro- and nanopowder of boron and chromium carbonitride and accompanying it pyrolytic boron and carbon with the use of transmission and scanning electron microscopy. It was established that the TEM method in the analysis of powdered raw materials and industrial micron chromium carbide and boride provides complete information acquisition about the shape and size of the particles and their dispersion composition; and the analysis of nanopowders provides visualization of individual particles to determine their linear dimensions, confirming their form close to the spherical ones. The SEM method provides the opportunity to study the tendency of nanoparticles to aggregate, the study of ensemble and individual nanoparticles with the specification of the size range, allows ascertaining the geometrical shape of the particles, proposing and discussing a possible mechanism for the formation of nanoparticles. A distinctive feature of the nano pyrolytic boron and carbon is their ability to form microaggregates of 200 – 400 and 150 – 200 nm, consisting of particles of size from 10 to 40 nm.