4/4/97
We are interested in obtaining a carbon coated grid but in a "butterfly" or
folding configuration instead of a single grid. We have some powders that are
radioactive and though our microscope (TEM) is already contaminated we would
like to reduce the potential for further contamination. I was thinking that a
butterfly grid with carbon on both sides may help.
Any thoughts? Does anyone sell such a beast? Any other ideas for reducing the
amount of particles that may come off?
Most of my work is with metal samples and I haven't worked with carbon coated
grids much. Can we make something like that easily? I saw the discussions
about holey carbon films but that is not quite what we are after!
TIA
John Vetrano
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA 99352
js_vetrano@pnl.gov
not a problem. You don't say whether the sample is conductive or not.
William Tivol
tivol@wadsworth.org
If I understand your question correctly, I think that you have several
options.
1) You could make your own carbon coated folding grids using the same
procedures used for single grids ( check for example "Techniques for
Electron Microscopy" Ed. Desmond Kay ). The techniques (there are a number
of them) are relatively simple.
2) Could you use a single carbon coated grid and then deposit carbon (by
vacuum evaporation) on top of your particles on the grid ?. This would
serve the same purpose as the carbon coated folding grids. You might end
up contaminating your evaporator however.
No matter what you do, you will still run the risk of contaminating your
scope since some of the film might break during observation. Also , keep
in mind that the increased thickness (two carbon layers), will decrease
your resolution. This might or might not affect the information you are
after.
Jordi Marti
MartiJ@MTOMP201.Research.Allied.com