Hydrated form of some clay minerals observed using a film sealed environmental cell

Author(s):  
N. Kohyama ◽  
K. Fukushima ◽  
A. Fukami

Since the interlayer or adsorbed water of some clay minerals are quite easily dehydrated in dried air, in vacuum, or at moderate temperatures even in the atmosphere, the hydrated forms have not been observed by a conventional electron microscope(TEM). Recently, specific specimen chambers, “environmental cells(E.C.),” have been developed and confirmed to be effective for electron microscopic observation of wet specimen without dehydration. we observed hydrated forms of some clay minerals and their morphological changes by dehydration using a TEM equipped with an E.C..The E.C., equipped with a single hole copper-microgrid sealed by thin carbon-film, attaches to a TEM(JEM 7A) with an accelerating voltage 100KV and both gas pressure (from 760 Torr to vacuum) and relative humidity can be controlled. The samples collected from various localities in Japan were; tubular halloysite (l0Å) from Gumma Prefecture, sperical halloysite (l0Å) from Tochigi Pref., and intermediate halloysite containing both tubular and spherical types from Fukushima Pref..

Author(s):  
W. Chiu ◽  
R. M. Glaeser ◽  
S. Prussin

A reliable method of confirming that one is able to produce single atom images in high resolution electron microscopy is to make a comparison of the number of atoms per unit area that is seen by the electron microscopic observations and the number per unit area as determined by a separate experimental technique of high accuracy. This report presents a method of preparinga specimen composed of a low distribution of gold atoms (ca. 1 atom/104 Å2) sandwiched between two ultra-thin carbon films, and also a method of measuring the gold atom density in the specimen by neutron activation analysis.The specimen was prepared by evaporation onto a freshly cleaved mica substrate in a vacuum evaporator, as shown in Figure 1. One side of the vacuum chamber was used to prepare a thin carbon film according to the method of Williams and Glaeser (1972), and the other side was used to evaporate the gold atoms from a molybdenum strip, which had a micro-quantity of gold deposited on a 1 cm2 surface area from a previous evaporation.


Author(s):  
O. H. Kapp ◽  
M. Ohtsuki ◽  
N. Robin ◽  
S. N. Vinogradov ◽  
A. V. Crewe

Annelid extracellular hemoglobins are among the largest known proteins (M.W = 3.9 x 106), and together with the hemocyanins are the largest known oxygen carriers. They display oxygen affinities generally higher than those o vertebrate hemoglobins with Hill coefficients ranging from slightly higher than unity to values as high as 5-6. These complex molecules are composed of multiple copies of as many as six different polypeptides and posse: approximately 150 hemes per molecule.The samples were diluted to 100-200 μg/ml with distilled water just before application to a thin carbon film (∽15 Å thick). One percent (w/v) uranyl acetate solution was used for negative staining for 2 minutes and dried in air. The specimens were examined with the high resolution STEM. Their general appearance is that of a hexagonal bilayer (Fig. 1), each layer consisting of six spheroidal subunits. The corner to corner hexagonal dimensic is approximately 300 Å and the bilayer thickness approximately 200 Å.


1997 ◽  
Vol 226 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 212-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chhaya R. Kant ◽  
M.P. Srivastava ◽  
R.S. Rawat

1976 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. M. Steele

SUMMARYElectron microscopic observation of negatively stained preparations of frozen and thawed suspensions of T4Bo phage clearly separated the morphological changes produced by low-temperature salt denaturation from those produced by eutectic phase changes. Salt denaturation caused contraction of tail sheaths. Eutectic phase changes appeared to cause two separate lesions. Firstly the tail sheath was disjointed 18–22 nm. below the collar and the tail core was disjointed at 40–60 nm. below the collar, giving rise to separated heads with a small tail remnant, and separated tails in which the sheath remarkably remained in its extended form. Secondly, tears were seen in the head membranes of particles with collapsed empty heads. In all the experiments the percentage of normal phage particles counted electron-microscopically was close to the percentage of viable phage as determined by plaque assay.


2002 ◽  
Vol 737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Gelloz ◽  
Nobuyoshi Koshida

ABSTRACTEfficient electroluminescence (EL) is obtained at low operating voltages (<3 V) from n+-type silicon- electrochemically oxidized thin nanocrystalline porous silicon (PS)-amorphous carbon-Indium tin oxide (ITO) junctions. The effects of a few nanometer thick amorphous carbon film between PS and ITO on the EL characteristics have been investigated. The carbon film enhances the stability. The EL efficiency is improved due to a reduction of current density and an increase in EL intensity. In addition, the reproducibility from device to device is very much improved by the carbon film. The enhancement in stability should originate from the capping of PS by the carbon film and the high chemical stability of carbon and Si-C bonds, which should prevent PS oxidation. The carbon film acts as an efficient buffer layer between PS and ITO, resulting in enhanced mechanical, electrical and chemical stability of the top contact and providing high reproducibility. The thin carbon film has only positive effects on all the EL characteristics. This is a very important step towards application.


Author(s):  
Warren A. Knox

Our study of contamination spots was done using the JEM-100B microscope in both the scanning and conventional modes. A very narrow scanning beam known to give a resolution of better than 35Å was focused, with scanning coils deactivated, onto the surface of a thin carbon film for various periods of time. The resulting contamination spots were then shadowed with gold at an angle of 30°, and imaged conventionally. The diameters of the spots were measured directly while the heights were calculated from the shadow lengths. The volumes were then calculated considering the spot to be the frustum of a right circular cone with minor diameter the known resolution of the beam, and major diameter the measured diameter.


Author(s):  
S.D. Golladay

The banding patterns of unstained tropomyosin magnesium paracrystals have been observed in a STEM at 30 kV. The microscope is interfaced to a computer so that both bright field and dark field (annular detector) signals can be stored on magnetic tape. The data acquisition system imposes constraints on the image sampling rate and on the maximum number of picture elements per frame, but has the substantial advantage of eliminating the need for careful film processing and densitometry for quantitative microscopy. The system is extremely helpful when first scan images of relatively thick objects on a thin carbon film are desired. In this situation, the operator cannot adjust the gain and bias of the video signal properly until he has already scanned the specimen. However, first scan data stored on magnetic tape can be replayed with bias and gain adjusted digitally to provide the best display of any specified region of interest in the image. Figure 1 shows such a replay of the bright field (IB) and dark field (1A) images of the paracrystal which was analyzed. The specimen was fixed and air dried but unstained.


Author(s):  
Martha N. Simon ◽  
Beth Y. Lin ◽  
Joseph S. Wall

The preparation of biological specimens for the STEM by the wet film technique and subsequent freeze-drying, has been shown to preserve biological structures reasonably well and give good mass measurements on them. However, the thin (2-3 nm) carbon substrate film, prepared by ultra-high vacuum evaporation onto a freshly cleaved crystal of rock salt, is never perfect for the attachment of fragile biological structures. The film is floated on a dish of clean water and grids covered with holey film are placed face down on the floating thin carbon film. The grids are picked up from above one at a time such that the carbon film retains a droplet of water. This water is exchanged by washing and wicking and the specimen is injected into the drop followed by further washing and wicking. After the final wash, the grid is blotted between two pieces of filter paper (retaining solution less than 1 μm thick), plunged into liquid nitrogen slush, and freeze-dried under vacuum overnight.


Author(s):  
Q. Ru ◽  
J. Endo ◽  
A. Tonomura

Compared with the wavefront-divided electron holography obtained by an electron biprism, the amplitude-divided one proposed by Matteucci et al. has some essential advantages: less necessary coherency, wide interference area and available to most of transmission electron microscopes. In order to confirm and achieve these advantages in practical use, we introduce some improvements in both hologram formation and reconstruction steps. Two electron-optical setups and experimental results are presented for small objects (<1 μm) and much large objects (>1 μm), respectively.The electron-optics for taking the holograms of small objects is illustrated in Figure 1. A single crystal thin film (gold film of 0.2nm lattice spacing is used in our experiment) is placed on the objects (latex particles of 120 nm on a thin carbon film are used here) with a certain gap. In fact, the gap is spontaneously made by the microgrids of the specimen film and the crystal film.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document