Hi Everyone.

I have made the nanofabricated TEM window grid including gold dot arrays on Si3N4 grids. I tried to generate SAMs by immersing the grid on the solution of (biotinylated Alkanethiols) for 24 hours. I passivated the silicon with Silane-PEG after that for 2 hours and then conjugated the streptavidin labeled Euprium to make the Carbon bond with Eu through biotin in due to having a heavier atom to bust the signal. I did EDS on TEM with a 1nm spatial resolution. I have the Carbon and Eu on the map but the Eu composition analysis shows that they are only in the range of instrument noise.

Does anyone have any suggestions to improve this experiment? I am not sure what is the best way to characterize the SAMs on the gold dots.

Also, the nanogold dot is 100nm in diameter and 200nm pitch size. that is why I can not do any instrument with lower spatial resolution.

Thanks