How to take ESEM or SEM Imaging of Condensation of water droplets on a Nanostructured Surface on what i fabricated to study the droplet growth behaviour.
Go through the Experimental sections of the following articles
Journal of Microscopy, Vol. 204, Pt 2, November 2001, pp. 172±183.
Microscopy and Microanalysis / Volume 17 / Supplement S2 / July 2011, pp 1464-1465
ESEM should have Peltier stage and source of water vapor (injected gas should be a water vapor).
Start imaging, then either increase water vapor pressure of decrease temperature, i.e. bring your specimen's environment to a dew point. You will see water droplets developing on your specimen. You can get too much water, then you'll see nothing but water surface. Playing with settings you can find the best conditions for observation.
Because water is not transparent to electrons you will need to work just at the dew point, and play around it.
Have in front of you a curve of water vapor saturation as function of the temperature.
in order to get good resolution it is better to work at temperatures near to 0 deg Celsius, and lower also the pressure, work at short working distances, in order to minimize beam scattering by water molecules.
As the limiting factor for resolution is the scattering by the water molecules, you will need to try acceleration voltages at least 10 kV and higher.
Condensation being reversible, you can all the time evaporate and condense back and forth until you get the best conditions for the observation.
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