Coated Grids and Custom Coating Service from SPI
Gearing up to make your own custom-coated grids
SPI Supplies is happy to provide assistance and service to anyone gearing up
to produce their own custom coated grids. If someone would no longer be a
customer for our own custom grid coating service, then perhaps they will
become our good customer for the starting grids, resins, carbon rods, and
all else that is needed.
A few general comments first:
One absolutely needs a diffusion pump vacuum or better in order to produce
carbon films that would be acceptable for TEM support films. Putting it
another way, one can not make suitable carbon films in a carbon coater using
only a rotary vane mechanical pump. A vacuum evaporatory with either a
diffusion pump or better is absolutely mandatory.
Most of the world refers to perforated carbon films as being either "holey"
or "lacey" carbon filmed grids. In Japan and possibly other countries in
the far east, these same films are referred to as "microgrids". But whether
one is talking about "holey" carbon coated grids or "microgrids", the
product is the same.
Once one starts making their own grids, they very rapidly come to realize
that:
- The making of good carbon support films, continuous, holey, or lacey is
truly an art and it is not enough to follow a stated protocol.
- If you are not making them on a regular basis, you can "lose our touch"
and the art has to be relearned.
- Extraneous variables such as high humidity can wreak havoc on one's
ability to make good support films.
- The cost to do this in-house almost always is much higher than
anticipated, especially when the maintenance costs of the vacuum evaporator
are taken into consideration. Other than that, the biggest cost is salary
but in some institutional situations this is not taken into consideration.
There is also the cost of reject grids which normally can not be cleaned and
used again without fear of contamination.
Selected References:
1. Fukami and Adachi, J. Electron Microscopy, 14, 112-118 (1965).
2. Fukami, Adachi, Katoh, The Proceedings of 6th International Congress on
Electron Microscopy (ICEM), Vol. 1, 263-264 (1966).
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Friday July 04, 2008
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