Hi everyone !

I have no experience with handling Ted Pella SiO TEM grids with removal formvar layer. In this regard I had three questions to those who are already experienced users:

1) The manual which is supplied with SiO grids actually refers to the carbon-coated grids with removal formvar layer. In the case of carbon-coated grids it is easy to guess which side is carbon coated (the darker one) and which is formvar coated (the lighter one), but in the case of SiO grids it is not so evident, at least for me. So I have a "shining" side and "dim" side (see attached pictures), which one is which ?

2) Again according to the manual it is advised to wash grid surface in CHCl3 for 10s. But in two my attempts I always dissolved the both layers (in TEM the grid squares were empty). Does somebody have any ideas what is wrong in my case ?

3) When I placed the sample onto the grid without formvar removal I faced another problem - the sample "jumps away" as soon as I try to condense the beam a little bit or to increase the magnification. How to avoid it?

Many thanks in advance !

Best regards,

Kirill