Abstract
Electron microscopy (EM) is the most used technique for materials characterisation. Both methods—scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with high resolution mode have become extensively used especially in nanomaterials research. This chapter provides a summary of modern EM techniques used for the analysis of nanoparticles. Regarding a broad spectrum of various nanomaterials being prepared to date or just naturally occurring in the environment, several case studies focusing on nanoparticles analysis by EM methods are introduced. Modified EM methods such as cryo techniques and environmental SEM (ESEM) are also mentioned because of their importance and great potential in research areas combining nanotechnology and biology.
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Abbreviations
- AEMs:
-
Analytical electron microscopes
- BF:
-
Bright field
- BSE:
-
Back-scattered electron
- BSA:
-
Bovine serum albumin
- CCD:
-
Charge-coupled device
- Cryo-ET:
-
Cryogenic electron tomography
- Cryo-SEM:
-
Cryogenic scanning electron microscopy
- Cryo-TEM:
-
Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy
- DF:
-
Dark field
- DNA:
-
Deoxyribonucleic acid
- EELS:
-
Electron energy-loss spectrometry
- EDS:
-
Energy dispersive spectrometer
- EDX:
-
Energy dispersive X-ray analysis
- EM:
-
Electron microscopy
- ET:
-
Electron tomography
- ESEM:
-
Environmental scanning electron microscopy
- FIB:
-
Focused ion beam
- FEG:
-
Field emission gun
- HAADF:
-
High-angle angular dark field
- MTB:
-
Magnetotactic bacteria
- SE:
-
Secondary electrons
- SEM:
-
Scanning electron microscopy
- SEMs:
-
Scanning electron microscopes
- SWNT:
-
Single walled carbon nanotubes
- TEM:
-
Transmission electron microscopy
- TEMs:
-
Transmission electron microscopes
- WDS:
-
Wavelength dispersive spectrometer
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Acknowledgments
This paper has been elaborated from the framework of the Nanotechnology—the basis for international cooperation Project, reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0074 supported by the Operational Programme “Education for competitiveness” funded by the Structural Funds of the European Union and the state budget of the Czech Republic. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the SGS project No. SP2013/48. The authors also would like to thank Jay Davis for valuable language corrections.
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Kratošová, G., Dědková, K., Vávra, I., Čiampor, F. (2014). Investigation of Nanoparticles in Biological Objects by Electron Microscopy Techniques. In: Prokop, A., Iwasaki, Y., Harada, A. (eds) Intracellular Delivery II. Fundamental Biomedical Technologies, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8896-0_8
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