Coated paper is an example of a multi-layer porous medium, involving a coating layer along the two surfaces of the paper and a fibrous layer in the interior of the paper. The interface between these two media needs to be characterized in order to develop relevant modeling tools. After careful cutting of the paper, a cross section was imaged using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy. The resulting image was analyzed to characterize the coating layer and its transition to the fibrous layer. Such image analysis showed that the coating layer thickness is highly variable, with a significant fraction of it being thinner than a minimum thickness required to keep ink from invading into the fibrous layer. The overall structure of the coating and fibrous layers observed in this analysis provide insights into how the system should be modeled, with the resulting conclusion pointing to a specific kind of multi-scale modeling approach.

中文翻译：

---

纸张涂层和纤维层之间界面的表征

涂层纸是多层多孔介质的一个例子，包括沿纸的两个表面的涂层和纸内部的纤维层。需要表征这两种媒体之间的接口，以便开发相关的建模工具。仔细切割纸张后，使用聚焦离子束扫描电子显微镜对横截面进行成像。分析所得图像以表征涂层及其向纤维层的过渡。这种图像分析表明，涂层厚度变化很大，其中很大一部分比防止墨水侵入纤维层所需的最小厚度薄。在该分析中观察到的涂层和纤维层的整体结构为如何对系统进行建模提供了见解，所得结论指向一种特定类型的多尺度建模方法。