Glass SIMS analysis

Hauri E. (2002) SIMS analysis of volatiles in silicate glasses 2. Isotopes and abundances in Hawaiian melt inclusions. Chem. Geol 183, 115-141. 

Eiler JM, Graham CM, Valley JW (1997) SIMS analysis of oxygen isotopes matrix effects in complex minerals and glasses. Chem Geol 138 221-244... 

Dynamic SIMS is used for depth profile analysis of mainly inorganic samples. The objective is to measure the distribution of a certain compound as a function of depth. At best the resolution in this direction is < 1 nm, that is, considerably better than the lateral resolution. Depth profiling of semiconductors is used, for example, to monitor trace level elements or to measure the sharpness of the interface between two layers of different composition. For glass it is of interest to investigate slow processes such as corrosion, and small particle analyses include environmental samples contaminated by radioisotopes and isotope characterization in extraterrestrial dust. 

Figure 13.7. The image of a fingerprint taken from a glass sheet surface (10,000 x 10,000 j,m). (Reprinted from Szynkowska, M. I. et al., 2007. Preliminary Studies Using Scanning Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) in the Visualisation and Analysis of Fingerprints, Imaging Sci. J., 55 180-187. With permission from Maney Publishing.) (See color insert.)...

The way in which fluoride is taken up by glass-ionomers has been studied using surface analysis techniques. Dynamic secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) shows that most of the fluoride becomes concentrated in the surface [248]. Its concentration with depth varies as an error function relationship [248]. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has suggested that fluoride taken up becomes associated with calcium [249]. However, the form of this association is unclear, because calcium fluoride as such is very insoluble, and when added to a fluoride-free glass-ionomer cement, caused no fluoride to be released [234]. It therefore seems unlikely that the calcium-fluoride association results in formation of Cap2, and further research is necessary to determine the precise nature of the calcium-fluoride association, and thus to resolve this paradox. 

Heat-cleaned E-glass slide surface. Table 1 shows that the heat-cleaned glass surface is confirmed to be silica-rich because of higher Si and O surface concentrations compared to the bulk analysis obtained by inductively coupled plasma (ICP). This is accommodated by a lower surface calcium concentration. The SIMS results given below demonstrate that a significant proportion of the oxygen is probably present as silanol. 

It seems that in ERD-TOF technique, the coming Glass 0211 can act as a suitable standard for not only the mass and energy calibrations but also for the relative concentrations of several elements. Further work on different Corning Glass samples to explore the feasibility of establishing their use as calibration standards in surface analysis techniques, such as ERD, SIMS, ESCA and AES, are in progress. 

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