Enrichment of boron at grain boundaries of platinum-based alloys determined by electron energy loss spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope

Polycrystalline platinum-based alloys show very good creep properties at high temperatures. Small amounts of boron (less than I at.%) considerably increase the creep strength. Transmission electron microscopy measurements were conducted to localize the element boron in the samples. With image electron energy loss spectroscopy spectra were extracted revealing an enrichment of B at grain boundaries. The boron distribution was plotted with the three window method.