Investigation of oxygen distribution in copper
In the process of copper wire manufacturing, a copper anode is made by fusion. In this study, its typical coarse-grained dendritic structure is revealed by SIMS ion imaging analyses. With a lateral resolution of ~0.5 µm, the oxygen ion images show the presence of oxide precipitates located at the grain boundaries (with high oxygen content) and in the inter-dendritic zone (with lower oxygen content).
Recorded on CAMECA IMS 7f at GEMaC/CNRS-UVSQ, Versailles, France. Image courtesy of F. Jomard.
A.-L. Helbert et al. Copper Refinement from Anode to Cathode and then to Wire Rod: Effects of Impurities on Recrystallization Kinetics and Wire Ductility. Microscopy and Microanalysis vol. 21, 1153–1166, (2015).