The earliest account of the contamination of electron microscope specimens by the deposition of carbonaceous material during electron irradiation was published in 1947 by Watson who was then working in Canada. It was soon established that this carbonaceous material is formed from organic vapours, and it is now recognized that the principal source is the oil-sealed rotary pumps which provide the backing vacuum. It has been shown that the organic vapours consist of low molecular weight fragments of oil molecules which have been degraded at hot spots produced by friction between the vanes and the surfaces on which they slide. As satisfactory oil-free pumps are unavailable, it is standard electron microscope practice to reduce the partial pressure of organic vapours in the microscope in the vicinity of the specimen by using liquid-nitrogen cooled anti-contamination devices. Traps of this type are sufficient to reduce the contamination rate to about 0.1 Å per min, which is tolerable for many investigations.
Fragments and hot spots in drug discovery
