Tomography has its roots in radiology: an X-ray beam hits a sample and the transmitted beam is recorded by a detector. The ratio of the transmitted to incident intensities will depend on the line integral of the absorption coefficient μ of the materials (which increase with the atomic number Z) along the beam path in the sample. The resulting image will thus be a 2D projection of the volumetric absorption coefficient of the sample itself. In tomography many 2D images (radiography) are acquired at different sample orientations, for a total angle of 180°. The images are then combined together through a mathematical algorithm in order to give a 3D reconstruction, in the form of sliced 2D maps, of the different absorption coefficient inside the sample, clearly related to its chemical composition.
Synchrotron X-ray sources are unique in their properties for tomographic analysis. The intense synchrotron X-ray beam allows the resolution of subtle variations in absorptivity due to an extremely...
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Cassetta, A. (2016). X-Ray Synchrotron Microtomography. In: Drioli, E., Giorno, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Membranes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44324-8_1104
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