NSW Branch Report

Source: By Dr Cameron Chai.

On October 31, Ric Wuhrer and his team (Daniel Fanna and Laurel George) at Western Sydney University Advanced Materials Characterisation Facility hosted the NSW branch for a seminar entitled “New dimensions to micro-CT imaging: Fast dynamic CT imaging and spectral CT on TESCAN micro-CT systems”, presented by Frederik Coppens from TESCAN (Belgium) and Kamran Khajehpour from AXT. As we all know microCT is growing rapidly in popularity with its ability to non-destructively image in 3D, making ideal for applications such as additive manufacturing. Frederik’s presentation concentrated in dispelling a couple of myths about microCT, i.e. 1. MicroCT scans take many hours 2. MicroCT doesn’t provide any chemical information

He demonstrated how system like the UniTOM XL and DynaTOM can generate complete 3D datasets in as little as 5 seconds while maintaining sub-micron resolution successfully dismissing the first myth. This is thanks to the synchronisation of a high flux (300W) X-ray source and high-speed detector (up to 100fps), which in turn allows true 4D microCT studies to be performed. The high-speed scanning capability was demonstrated using in situ scanning of collapsing beer foam, also made possible by the stationary sample and gantry mounted optics. The practical application of this relates directly to optimising the taste of beer. A further example presented involved looking a fluid flow through porous rock which has implications in filtration, catalysis and CO2 storage. To overcome with the second myth, TESCAN have developed an energysensitive photon counting detector, enabling Spectral CT, or the ability to perform chemical analysis, complementing conventional structural CT data. This detector can be added to some TESCAN microCTs and enables users to identify elements heavier than Mo and was illustrated by successfully identifying gold particles a geological core sample with no sample prep, also relevant to other applications in the mining industry. In a second case study, scanned a bunch of Lego pieces. Polymers typically have very little contrast difference between them when viewed with CT, however, using spectral CT it was possible to distinguish various colours of Lego with a high degree of confidence.