Physical chemistry of the powder metallurgy of beryllium: Chemical characterization of the powder in relation to its granularity

Combining the systematic quantitative chemical analysis of the light impurities H, C, N, and O, the quantitative thermal desorption of molecular H2O and H2, and X ray diffractometry of various size fractions of a commercial Be powder (SP-65 grade from Brush-Wellman) allowed the precise de-termination of the mean composition and equivalent mean thickness of the surface impurity phases in the passivation-contamination layer on the surface of the particles. The overall surface stoichi-ometry is as follows: 0.2 BeOcrystallized, 0.8 [BeO - 0.59 H2O]amorphous, 0.14 H2Oads The result of the elemental analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of the unetched surface of a powder pellet is compare…