I dissolve the solid sample in ethanol and then apply it to the carbon grid and dried it but I am not getting satisfactory results..
What is the material you want to se, can you specify tha quantum dot material ??
@Dhiraj Kumar bharti
I want to know how do we prepare a sample for TEM, in order to see if we have Carbon dots.
You can try copper grid instead. Reduce the concentration of carbon dot in EtOH if it high. If Everything is fine then can alter the solvent system and see how it works
Try dispersing your sample in DI water. NPs are really sensitive to the dispersion media. I've also worked with diamond nanocrystals, and they dispersed evenly in water rather than ethanol.
@ Kanwal try to take low concentration of your sample
Make sure your sample is well dispersed ( keep it in sonicator for atleast 15 minutes )
And ensure that your sample is absolutely moisture free before taking TEM images
@Natalya kublik,Kaha Sravani,G.A.Khater..Thank you all for your valuable suggestions
I have used a carbon-coated copper grid for TEM analysis of carbon dots. The carbon dots (CDs) you obtain might be water-dispersed or ethanol dispersed. So first, you have to dilute your as-synthesized carbon dots solution (either in ethanol or water ). Then, you have to drop-cast the diluted CDs on the carbon-coated copper grid using an insulin syringe after sonication for 15 minutes. One small drop on the copper grid you can see by naked eyes. Now cover that with petri-dish and keep that for drying. If you are using water for dilution then you need hot-plate for complete drying while in case of ethanol room temperature is sufficient. Make sure drop-casting on the copper grid should be perfectly done.
Anurag kumar Pandey thank you so much for your kind suggestion but can you tell me that how much diluted solution you have used?
Actually, I have prepared a stock solution of carbon dots 20mg/ml in the water solvent. After that, I have taken 0.5 ml of stock solution (10mg/ml) and diluted that in 49.5 ml ethanol to get concentration of 0.2mg/ml. My carbon dots color was dark yellow.The colors of diluted carbon dots was very light yellow (can see from naked eyes). you can go more dilution if color of your sample is still dark. if you dont know concentration of your synthesized carbon dots then add 0.5ml of carbon dots in 10 ml ethanol and see the color. If color is still dark add more ethanol until you get very light color of your sample. Many paper have used 1:1600 dilution (0.07mg/ml) but at that concentration i have not got results.
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