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Preparation/Dispersion of Small Particles for TEM Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Kit h. Foo
Affiliation:
Department of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL60208
W-A Chiou
Affiliation:
Department of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL60208 Dept. of Chemical & Biochemical Eng. and Material Science, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
A. Ishikawa
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Nihon University, Sakurajosui, Setagaya-Ku, Tokyo 156, Japan
K. Fukushima
Affiliation:
JEOL Ltd., 1-2 Musashino, 3-chome, Akishima, Tokyo 196, Japan
M. Meshii
Affiliation:
Department of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL60208
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Abstract

Small particles such as clay minerals, because of its large surface area to volume ratio and their high chemical activity on the particle surface, when added to composites affects (and often enhances) the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of materials immensely. As a result, there is a need to develop a method of characterizing these particles individually. However, physical dispersion of these particles can be very difficult, since they tend to agglomerate to reduce the high surface energy. Disperants of various sorts could be used to disperse/stabilize the system, but they could compromise/damage the integrity of the inherent state of these small particles. This paper presents a comparison study of preparing/dispersing small clay particles for electron microscopy research, and also represents the first report of cryo-microscopy of clay minerals.

Two types of smectites, namely a montmorillonite with cation exchange capacity (CEC= 140) and a saponite (CEC=42) were used for this study.

Type
Specimen Preparation for Materials Science
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2001

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References

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6. This research made use of MRC facilities supported by NSF (DMR-9632742) at Northwestern U.Google Scholar