High quality electrodeposited grids made from platinum and silver are used in those
kinds of instances where the supported sample on a grid is being treated
in some reactive environment, and one that would be hostile to the move
commonly used grids, namely, those made from copper, nickel, or gold. We previously offered a full
range of platinum grids as well, however the very low unit volume of both
grid types led to production costs that were so high, very few researchers
seemed willing to pay the high price. For extreme environment and high
temperature work, platinum is obviously superior to silver. When high temperature
characteristics are now required, we recommend our
molybdenum or
diamond grids.
While not as inert as platinum, silver is still known for its relatively
high inertness to chemical attack. The world wide market, even for these
types of silver grids is very small, therefore the (apparently) high prices.
Because of low volume and demand, as well as more and more stringent
environmental regulations, we have already had to phase out our popular line
of platinum TEM grids, as indicated above, and they are no longer available.
Now for the bad news: The world's sole manufacturer of these grids
has discontinued their production, but we do have a few left which
represents, to our knowledge, the last of the world's inventory of these
grids. Therefore, these platinum as well as the remaining silver grids
are being sold only until our present inventory is exhausted. And at that
point, these precious metal products will be permanently discontinued.
Actually, many have found that the alternative, the
SPI Supplies brand silicon nitride membrane window grids for many applications, is even superior to platinum or silver.
Z=Silver * While supplies last !
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