Quantitative studies of pyrocarbon‐coated materials using synchrotron radiation

Phase‐contrast imaging provides enhanced image contrast and is important for non‐destructive evaluation of structural materials. In this paper, experimental results on in‐line phase‐contrast imaging using a synchrotron source (ELETTRA, Italy) for objects required in material science applications are discussed. Experiments have been carried out on two types of samples, pyrocarbon‐coated zirconia and pyrocarbon‐coated alumina microspheres. These have applications in both reactor and industrial fields. The phase‐contrast imaging technique is found to be very useful in visualizing and determining the coating thickness of pyrocarbon on zirconia and alumina microspheres. The experiments were carried out at X‐ray energies of 16, 18 and 20 keV and different object‐to‐detector distances. The results describe the contrast values and signal‐to‐noise ratio for both samples. A comprehensive study was carried out to determine the thickness of the pyrocarbon coating on zirconia and alumina microspheres of diameter 500 µm. The advantages of phase‐contrast images are discussed in terms of contrast and resolution, and a comparison is made with absorption images. The results show considerable improvement in contrast with phase‐contrast imaging as compared with absorption radiography.