Specimen Preparation for Transmission Electron Microscopy using sublimable naphthalene

Abstract: Sample preparation is significantly important to the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) characterization of nanomaterials. However, many general organic solvents can dissolve the necessary organic polymer support layer in TEM grid, which causes it difficult to obtain high-quality samples of oil-soluble nanomaterials. In this study, a new sample preparation method for oil-soluble nanomaterials has been developed by using the sublimable material as a transition layer. Experiments also show that there is no damage to TEM grids and high-quality HRTEM images can be obtained via this method. This approach paves the way to applicable HRTEM sample preparation of oil-soluble nanomaterials. Keywords: Transmission electron microscopy, Sample preparation, Oil-soluble nanomaterial, Sublimable material. Conclusions: This new method avoids the destruction of organic polymer layer in TEM grid by organic solvent and can obtain high-quality TEM samples in the characterization of oil-soluble nanomaterials. Our method not only can be used for the preparation of nanocrystals sample, but also can be applied to oil-soluble nanoclusters, nanosheets, nanowires and other materials. In addition to oil-soluble nanomaterials, other nanomaterials in corrosive solutions such as strong acids and bases can also be suitable for this method. This work enriches and improves the sample preparation technique in the field of TEM. Cite this article: Deng, YH. Sublimable materials facilitate the TEM sample preparation of oil-soluble nanomaterials. Appl. Microsc. 50, 21 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42649-020-00042-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42649-020-00042-7