I would like to do TEM for my polymeric nanoparticles. How can I prepare samples for TEM analysis? All types of suggestions welcome.
You can try to produce by ultrasonic treatment a dispersion in water, ice-water, ethanol, ....(whatever?!). Then put a drop on a TEM-grid or lay a ultrasonic smoke-screen on the grid. You must be very careful to prevent damage of the particles and avoid agglomeration. Looking for instance in this new paper:
Shadpour Mallakpour, Mehdi Hatami: Study on constructional design and structural analysis of poly(amide-imide)/ZnO nanocomposites containing pyromellitoyl-bis-L-isoleucine moieties, High Performance Polymers Vol. 25, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 436-444
In a TEM, the specimen you want to look at must be of such a low density that it allows electrons to travel through the tissue. There are different ways to prepare your material for that purpose. You can cut very thin slices of your specimen from a piece of tissue either by fixing it in plastic or working with it as frozen material. Another way to prepare your specimen is to isolate it and study a solution of for example viruses or molecules in the TEM.
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