SEDL / STP / STP155-EB / STP44070S

Positive Versus Negative Plastic Replicas

Schwartz, C. M.
Research Supervisor, Battelle Memorial,

Pages: 5    Published: Jan 1954

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Abstract

The shadowed negative plastic replica technique has, unquestionably, many of the characteristics required for the examination of a wide variety of microstructures. It is rapid, reproducible, and readily interpreted; the electron microstructures can be correlated well with those from light microscopy. The negative replica suffers, however, in two respects: (1) it is an inverse representation of the original specimen surface contour, and (2) the metal deposit, used to enhance contrast and resolution, highlights those areas of the replica which correspond to pits and valleys of the original surface. Neither of these objections are of significance when using the negative replica for survey work or for study of gross microstructure, if certain precautions are observed in applying the technique.