Working on a Transmission Electron Microscope

Working on a Transmission Electron MicroscopeA brief How-to-guide and important tips

Transmission Electron Microscopy(TEM) is a very useful technique used for imaging very fine detailseven as small as a single column of atoms, which is thousands of times smaller than the smallest resolvable object in a light microscope.TEM forms a major analysis method in a range of scientific fields, in both physical and biological sciences. TEMs find application in cancer research, virology, materials science as well as pollution, nanotechnology, and semiconductor research.An electron beam is passed through a sample and the transmitted electrons are projected on to a fluorescent screen which is later converted to an imageSample is suspended in a solution and drop casted on to a copper mesh grid, allowed to air dry and then put in to a microscope for analysisSolid samples are crushed in to a fine powder and then gently sprinkled on to the gridA very fine tip forceps/tweezers is used to handle the copper mesh gridsCopper grids are most commonly used as copper is a good conductor of electricitySamples are usually analyzed at a 100kV, for better resolution 120kV can be used