Spontaneous growth of corrosion layer on sodium exposed to air by EPMA and Monte Carlo simulations

Córdoba

Simposio; 14th International Symposium on Radiation Physics; 2018

ISRP-UNC

The growth of the corrosion layer occurring when a sodium surface is exposed to air under room conditions was studied considering the ratio between O-Kα and Na-Kα characteristic peak intensities from the x-ray emission spectrum collected in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) for different exposure times of metallic sodium to air. The sodium sample was irradiated by 25 keV electrons in a SEM-FEG Zeiss instrument model Sigma. X-ray spectra were obtained using an energy dispersive spectrometer attached to the SEM, which consists of a silicon drift Oxford detector with an Aztec characterization system. During the spectra acquisition, controlled amounts of air were allowed to enter into the SEM chamber through a manual valve