I want o carry out some AFM measurements on my aerogel monoliths. How to prepare the thin slices of a sample without destroying the structure and key point to be considered are - Material is fragile, surface should be preserved.
If you want to use your sample as powder, AFM can not be an useful method for characterization. However, you can press your sample by a home made hydrolic pressing device to form it as a pellet. In another method, coat your sample over a glass by adding a binder such as CMC.
Adding with binder on a glass slide may work. But funding an undamaged particle surface under the cantilever takes time.
Hi, i work with monolith as well. What I did was break one with a sharp object, Mine was silica, and i could get some flat surfaces, the round parts I flattened with a sandpaper, which i also used to reduce my sample thickness. when it was thin enough, i glued it with carbon tape (double face) and got my image.. however my monolith had macropores, they didn't allow me to do really high magnifications.
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