The other two measurement methods, EZS and SEM, were used by only three participants in total:
Therefore, the examination of the method used for dispersing the cement will be based on the details provided by each participant.
Participant #A15 reported that 1.1 g of sample was wetted with a few drops of IPA in a small container. Once the sample was completely wet, IPA was added to a total volume of 20 mL and the cuvette was capped. The cuvette was then rocked by hand before being placed in an ultrasonic bath (125 W for 15 s). Two drops of the dispersion were added to 100 mL of electrolyte (2 % NH4SCN in IPA added as an electrical conductor) with a transfer pipette. The concentration of the dispersion was 0.055 g/mL. The dispersion was stirred during the measurement using a magnetic stir bar to avoid sedimentation. A single orifice of size 0.140 mm was used during measurements. The measurement was completed in 60 s.
The following information is available from participant #1773. The concentration of the dispersion was 0.0001 g/mL and it was prepared by dilution from a more concentrated stock (5.0 g/mL). The medium used was IPA with no additives. The stock dispersion was ultrasonicated, prior to dilution and introduction to the measuring device, for 5 s at an undetermined output power in a bath sonicator. The orifice used was smaller than 400 µm and the measurement lasted 120 s.
The SEM method was used only by participant #A1. The general description of the method is given in Section 2.1. The sample preparation is summarized below. The type of medium used for dispersion was ethanol and the duration of the measurement varies depending on knowledge of the sample to be analyzed. It appears that it could take anywhere from 11 min to about 9 h to analyze the distribution by SEM. The preparation of the specimen prior to the analysis requires less than 10 min according to the participant #A1.