Since carbon is not easily seen by TEM, it is hard to measure carbon nanoparticles, and I have not been able to find a collaborator who can do this.
Dear Jerome Ferrance,
Yes, it is certainly difficult to observe carbon NPs by TEM, although not impossible. It depends of course on the microscope you are using, but also on the use of the adequate TEM grids. You could use Holey carbon and try to analize the NPS at the holes, or better, I would suggest Formvar-based grids. We use these for thin cross section of biological material.
Aside from TEM, you could also get the distribution of hydrodinamic sizes by Dynamic Ligth Scattering (DLS), a quite routinary technique at many labs in UE and USA.
Hope this helps.
I agree with G.F. Goya. I have had great experience with Formvar-based grids (400-Cu + Formvar from Electron Microscopy Sciences to be exact) and should do the trick for your imaging. I haven't done carbon nanoparticles - just proteins, gold nanoparticles, and carbon nanotubes. But I do suspect it should fit your need well.
Also, DLS systems are common on university campuses. Particularly the Malvern brand systems. If you are going to look at particles that small I would suggest their Nano ZS or Nano Z rather than Nano ZS90 or Z90. The scattering angle of the former (ZS, or Z) have a more optimal scattering angle for smaller sized particles than something like the ZS90/Z90 systems. *BUT* I have found all of the Malvern instruments to be rather robust, so if you can only find the other systems, they should work just fine for your needs!
Good luck!
Thank you both for your answers. I did tried dynamic light scattering, but because the particles fluoresces, the DLS could not give me accurate results.
I do not have access to TEM instruments myself, but I did have a researcher at the University of Virginia do some TEM imaging for me, but they could not see the carbon particles.
Since I do not have access to the necessary instrumentation myself, I am really looking for a collaborator who could do some measurements and be a co-author on the research paper.
Hi,
There are two lasers used in Malvern Zetasizers; find an instrument having the other one than yours.
TEM is the best option rather than DLS. Formvar-based grids will give better result than normal. if you need I can help you to take TEM images
TEM is not a replacement for DLS. Quite a lot of the suspensions tend to aggregate with the time. You can't pass by DLS in such a case.
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