ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a variety of techniques with broad application to the characterization of ceramic powders. Knowledge of the powder characteristics serves two key purposes: quality control of the starting material and ability to control the microstructure of the fabricated material. The important characteristics of a powder can be categorized into four groups: physical characteristics, chemical composition, phase composition, and surface characteristics. The surface area and the surface chemistry are the surface characteristics that have the most profound influence on processing. The most widely applicable techniques for characterizing the surface structure of solids include electron diffraction and scanning probe microscopy. The most widely applicable techniques for characterizing the surface chemistry of ceramic powders are Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which is referred to as electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), and secondary ion mass spec-trometry (SIMS). The secondary ions are characteristic of the surface, the technique provides information about the chemical composition of the surface.
