I'm trying to image silica nanoparticles with a Scanning Electron Microscope. I think SEM samples are required to be conductive or sputter coated with a conductive layer of gold, but I'm not sure how to prepare a sample of colloidal Silica synthesized by the Stober process for analysis. Some studies I've seen diffuse the silica in a polymer matrix then prepare that on a slide for imaging, but that may affect the silica's dispersion which I'm trying to analyze. I don't have access to a TEM, and only an SEM. Thanks!
You dont need to coat silica np with gold. You can visualize them directly.
If I were you, I would use sub-kV SEM technique without any coating.
I think you should scan without coating the silica... and low kV... I hope you will get very good images with a FE SEM...
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