Analysis of Asbestos Fibres in The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) by The Use of Electron Backscattering Diffraction (Ebsd).

Abstract Asbestos is a common name of a number of fibrous mineral silicates which differ in chemical composition. The asbestos fibres are classified into two groups: serpentine (chrysotile) and amphiboles (anthophyllite, amosite, actinolite, tremolite, crocidolite). Inhalation of asbestos dust fibres involves a health risk. It is therefore of great importance to develop quick and reliable methods to check for the presence of asbestos fibres in suspected materials. Some common analysis methods for asbestos detection are: optical microscopy scanning or transmission electron microscopies (SEM,TEM) often combined with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) in the TEM where the crystal structure is determined. The EBSD technique in the SEM has in this work been applied to achieve electron backscattering patterns (EBSP) from four types of asbestos fibres. The pattern quality has been studied as a function of specimen preparation and SEM settings.