Observation of morphology and compositional changes of magnesium alloy using liquid cell TEM

Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) was developed for analyzing the liquid-phase samples and shows not only the in-situ morphological images of the sample, but also the in-situ material information such as selected area diffraction (SAD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The researchers analyzed the corrosion behavior of Mg–Zn–Ca alloys using both polarization and immersion tests. However, these methods only provide macro scale corrosion characteristics. In this study, the corrosion behavior of the Mg–Zn–Ca alloy powders was analyzed using LCTEM. It provided the in-situ sub-micron scale images and time-dependent composition, thereby revealing evidence of selective corrosion of the α-Mg phase as well as the IM1 phase (Ca2Mg6Zn3).