Evaluation of true interlamellar spacing from microstructural observations

Abstract

A method for evaluating true interlamellar spacing from micrographs is proposed for a multidomained lamellar structure. The microstructure of these materials is assumed to be composed of many domains with the lamellae aligned roughly parallel to each other within each domain and with the domains themselves randomly oriented relative to one another. An explicit expression for the distribution of apparent interlamellar spacing is derived assuming that the distribution of the true interlamellar spacing is Gaussian. The average interlamellar spacing is close to the peak interlamellar spacing observed in the distribution. The theoretical distributions are compared with experimental ones obtained by analyzing micrographs of PbTe–Sb2Te3 lamellar composites.