Hi Rameses,
I would suggest trying diamond lapping films, since you already have a glass slab. I used this method in grad school for polishing air-plasma sprayed ceramic microstructures on single crystal nickel alloys (worst things I've ever had to polish!). You'll probably end up with some scratches at the end of the process, but it will help eliminate the edge rounding you're seeing. If you really don't want any scratches on the final surface, you could finish with 0.3 um slurry on a cloth, but only with light pressure and for a short time (1-2 minutes by hand).
Good luck!
Matt
----------------------------------------------------------
Matthew Weeks, Ph.D.
Principal Development Engineer, Materials Science
Electron Probe Microanalysis Laboratory
Western Digital®
San Jose Materials Science Laboratory
5601 Great Oaks Parkway
Building 50, M274
San Jose, CA 95119-1003
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-----Original Message-----
From: JEOL-Focused Probe Users List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Rameses
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2018 8:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PROBEUSERS] polishing <20 um grains
Hello all,
I'm seeking ideas for how to polish epoxy mounts of grains that are <20 um, for EPMA. The crystals I'm after are ~10 um or smaller. Initial attempts with polishing cloths (on glass slabs) were unsuccessful as the
<10 um grains were rounded and standing proud of the epoxy surface, likely due to the 'soft' polishing cloth.
I've had suggestions to use diamond pastes on manilla envelopes or silk, which have yielded flat finishes for others (unsure what grain size they were mounting and polishing). I will attempt this, however I've also had other folks tell me that polishing anything below 20 um is not possible, at least certainly not without mechanical polishers, which I don't have. The latter group includes people who study tephra and diamond inclusions by EPMA and SIMS, and are no strangers to very small grains.
Any experiences/tips/recommendations would be very gratefully received.
Kind regards,
-Rameses D'Souza
Postdoctoral fellow
University of Victoria
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