Characterisation of cement‐based materials by 2D and 3D analytical SEM

The demands on modern building materials are constantly increasing. Innovative solutions produce a multitude of binders and concretes that often have a very complex, multiscale heterogeneous composition. Multi‐scale imaging of structural characteristics is still a challenge but will provide basic understanding of essential material properties.

Over centuries scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been applied to characterize unhydrated and hydrated cements as well as concretes. Continuous development of microscopes soft‐ and hardware steadily gives new insights into the materials microstructure. Here we give an overview of current characterisation possibilities such as high‐resolution chemical‐crystallographic analysis in the SEM using energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX) in combination with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), 3D imaging in the SEM using focused ion beam (FIB) serial sectioning and image reconstruction, cryo‐FIB‐SEM as well as high resolution imaging on argon broad ion beam (BIB) sectioned surfaces.