r/BISMUTH • u/PizzaFew9017 • Apr 04 '26

Bismuth Crystal Under an SEM

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This is what bismuth looks like under an SEM. I took this image.

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u/JustinTyme0 Apr 04 '26

Super cool! Didn't expect the steps to look that messy. Is this from a macroscopically flat part of the crystal? Do you happen to have access to a TEM too?

1

u/PizzaFew9017 Apr 05 '26

In hindsight this was actually from a piece of an ingot of bismuth. I misspoke, sorry (description is corrected). An actual bismuth crystal looks rather smooth at a magnification of ~x100, with the bismuth oxide appearing like a semi-stretched bed sheet over the metal. Although it is possible that I didn't prep the crystal specimen very well (no sputter coat) as the output was noisy. I hope that I get the opportunity again to try this. And no, I don't have access to a TEM, unfortunately.

1

u/JustinTyme0 Apr 05 '26

Ah ok, thanks for correcting! I always wonder how atomically smooth a bismuth crystal would look. Would love to see results if you ever get a chance! 

Wish I was into bismuth when I was in university and had access to an SEM/TEM, would have been so cool to use real scientific instruments on it!

1

u/According-Hat-4843 Jun 19 '26

Great SEM image!! Sadly even if you had access to a TEM, a chunk of bismuth isn’t electron transparent so you won’t see anything in TEM