In: Physics
The most important methods to determine the size of nanoparticles are TEM and AFM. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods?
Hey there!
The physical basis of measuring the size of the particles in (Transmission Electron Microscope)TEM is by "scattering of electrons" through the sample. TEM works in an environment which is a vacuum. TEM goes with the principle , that when a beam of electrons interact with the specimen. The material sensitivity in TEM increases with increasing atomic number of the specimen. Hence, results with higher scattering in the formation of the image. One disadvantage of TEM is that smaller nanoparticles without coating for the observation makes it impossible to get into the image.TEM offers the largest throughput and it is also useful for rapid characterization. Another drawback is that TEM requires coating of the sample and hence will result with high cost to conduct experiments and observation. It may even go upto 20 times the cost of what it takes than AFM.
When it comes to (Atomic Force Microscopy) AFM the physical basis is by "physical interaction with sample". AFM works in any environment, that is in air or liquid or vacuum. AFM is considerably different when compared other microscopic techniques, because, AFM collects all 3 spacial dimension information when compared to TEM. AFM takes information in both x-y plane and also the depth with z-axis. AFM images have high resolutions with lesser noise level. When it comes to drawbacks, AFM doesn't have a fast scanning time. The scanning takes place with help of a probe. This probe sends in laser beams which reflects off from a cantilever. This laser beam interacts with the substrate . Because of this setting, up and down operation takes place which results with difficulty in measuring the overhangs and steepwalls through AFM.
I hope the explanation helps.. Cheers :)