| In recent years, electron tomography (reconstruction of three-dimensional {3D} information from a tilt series of bright field images obtained in the transmission electron microscope {TEM}) has attracted the attention of electron microscopists and materials researchers for its possible applications regarding the characterization of carbon nanotube (CNT) turfs. In this research, the electron tomography technique has been extended to imaging lineal structures and CNT turfs from secondary electron images in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The technique is used to examine the structure of a fiber system before and after deformation. The expected application is to investigate the structure of CNT turfs, and to use the 3D CNT fiber models for computational characterizations. Test samples of low/high density steel wool and CNTs were tilted around a single axis by one-degree steps, and 3D images were reconstructed for the specimens by conventional electron tomography software. The technique is shown to be able to reasonably reconstruct the 3D features of the turfs, and to extract features such as lineal density, tortuosity, and the fiber path equation; features that define the mechanical properties of these materials. |
