Hi,
I have a question about the chemical analysis of an alloyed metal, one that had such elements as copper, antimony and arsenic added as hardening agents. My understanding is that if one examines very small samples, the grain boundaries that accumulate those elements (Cu, Sb, etc.) could skew the results: in other words, using a small sample would amplify your chances of mischaracterizing the chemical content of the overall piece of metal. This is a result of microsegregation. My question is this: within each sample, would the "spike" in antimony or copper correlate with each other? If there was a jump in copper in one sample, should there be a close/promixate jump in antimony in the same sample, or would their (Cu and Sb) relative accumulation in the grain boundaries have nothing to do with each other?
Thanks, Stu