Material characterization in the identification of unknowns

Abstract

Materials characterization methods are widely used in many fields, such as in determining material properties when selecting materials to be used for a wide variety of purposes, such as building construction; aircrafts; and machines; or being used in application such as failure analysis to determine how a part failed and how it can be prevented in the future. Another application of materials characterization techniques that is less mentioned, however, is their use in identifying the identity and history of a material. This review seeks to explore this application of characterization methods, describing both how the methods are used, and the results obtained, with special focus on optical microscopy, used to examine the surfaces of structures, and various spectroscopies, used in examining various properties such as composition, crystal structure, etc.