Dear Shadman Mansouri,
Ethanol is the best solvent for TiO2 nanofibers in TEM analysis.
Other solvents which can be used are dimethyl formamide (DMF), methanol or isopropanol.
I hope I have answered your question.
With Best Wishes,
Samir G. Pandya
I think there is confusion between solvent and dispersion here..... And it seems to be a common issue.
That's why we normally called the liquid within which the particles will be dispersed the 'continuous phase'. A solvent normally means the liquid within which we will dissolve matter.
@ Gaser @ Zaid @ Samir etc
Ethanol does not dissolve TiO2. Maybe this is a (technical/scientific/cultural) language issue?
You can try also 10% v/v pyridine/water mixture to better disperse the nanofibers. This pyridine additive is efficient to stabilize dispersion and easily removed when drying the sample (caution: do not breath, use ventilatiion ) .
Shadman,
TiO2 nanoparticles can be dispersed in number of liquids – chemically they are pretty resistant, and the only purpose of the liquid is to disperse the NPs to prevent agglomeration on the TEM grid. You can use either ethanol, water, etc., but try to avoid contaminating your sample by any residues left behind after drying (e.g. use abs. EtoH, distilled water, ... ). Maybe even more important step is to sonicate such mixture before transferring it to TEM grid...
There are also numerous threads on this topic on RG already, like:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_prepare_TEM_sample_of_nanoparticles
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_can_I_prepare_Sample_with_Nanoparticles_for_TEM
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