3D microscopy is of interest for structural characterization of paper materials
to study the use of cellulose nanofibrils as a paper additive. Focused ion beam
(FIB) tomography is a promising microscopy technique for this application,
combining scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with serial sectioning by ion
beam, potentially with nanoscale resolution.
In this work, FIB tomography is demonstrated for paper samples, showing that
the technique is applicable to this class of materials. Volume reconstructions
with voxel resolution down to 13x13x 15nm3 for volumes of up to approximately
10x10x2 μm3 are obtained. The latter is limited by the acquisition time, and
can therefore be extended.
A working protocol is developed, from sample preparation and image acquisition
to processing and volume reconstruction. The method is discussed in comparison
to established 3D methods for paper materials, and suggestions are made
for improving the resolution and increasing the volume
