title: Photogrammetry of the three-dimensional shape and texture of a nanoscale particle using scanning electron microscopy and free software.
abstract: We apply photogrammetry in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study the three-dimensional shape and surface texture of a nanoscale LiTi2(PO4)3 particle. We highlight the fact that the technique can be applied non-invasively in any SEM using free software (freeware) and does not require special sample preparation. Three-dimensional information is obtained in the form of a surface mesh, with the texture of the sample stored as a separate two-dimensional image (referred to as a UV Map). The mesh can be used to measure parameters such as surface area, volume, moment of inertia and center of mass, while the UV map can be used to study the surface texture using conventional image processing techniques. We also illustrate the use of 3D printing to visualize the reconstructed model.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica y Química Inorgánica, Universidad de Cádiz, Puerto Real 11510, Spain; Faico PCT Cartuja. Edif. TI Marie Curie, C/ Leonardo da Vinci 18, 4ª Planta, 41092 Sevilla, Spain. Electronic address: lionelcg@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lionel C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Gontard
authors.affiliation: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schierholz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Shicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Microscopía Centro de Investigación, Tecnología e Innovación (CITIUS), Universidad de Sevilla, Av. Reina Mercedes 4b, 41012 Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cintas
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Rafal E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dunin-Borkowski
keywords: Freeware; Image processing; LiTi(2)(PO(4))(3); Nanoscale particle morphology; Photogrammetry; Surface texture; Three-dimensional scanning electron microscopy