I have some pictures of TEM from my samples and I would be grateful if somebody can help me to interpret them.
Bhagyashri Joshi
Different microemulsions are thermodynamically unstable. Perhaps your picture shows that the stages of increasing droplet size are realized first by combining small droplets into aggregates. In fig. the formation of darker aggregates is visible, but this must be compared with the already developed theory of instability of microemulsions.
Images are grainy because a substrate is grainy, or due to poor focusing, or both.
You do not really see droplets, you can see only their dried out remnants. Usually cryo TEM is a better choice for emulsions.
Bhagyashri Joshi
Of course we see in a vacuum TEM fingerprints of a microemulsion. For clarification, I would like to know the microemulsion stabilizer.
Kolliphor RH 40 is a condensation product of castor oil and 40 molecules ethylene glycol. In a thin layer of emulsion, this oligomer along with propylene glycol can form in the vacuum conglomerates that are visible on TEM image.
- Badges
- Science topic