SPI Plasma-Prep™ II Plasma Etcher, Cleaner and Asher
Applications for "glow discharge" treating carbon coated TEM grids
Introduction:
Many of the world's TEM users prepare their samples on carbon coated grids.
However, since carbon coatings are not inherently hydrophilic, and as they
age, they become even less so (sometimes to the extend one would call they
hydrophobic), there is a constant quest to find the "trick" to make a carbon
coated grid "hydrophilic".
And the best trick in our opinion is to expose the carbon coated grids to a
nitrogen (or "air") plasma in the SPI Plasma Prep II Plasma Etcher.
This is easily done by placing the grids in an ordinary glass petri dish,
for example, and then giving an exposure of 5 seconds.
The treatment should increase the hydrophilic nature of the carbon coating
for roughly thirty days. If you do not use these grids within that time and
they lose their desirable characteristics, then can always be treated again,
without causing harm to the carbon coating itself.
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Tuesday May 22, 2012
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