Electron Microscopy Sciences has announced the addition of graphene transmission electron microscope support films to its product line.
The graphene support film provides an invisible, crystalline background that enables the TEM characterisation of organic and inorganic nanomaterials.
Graphene is a single atomic layer of carbon atoms tightly packed in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.
This material is atomically thin, chemically inert, consists of light atoms and possesses a highly ordered structure.
Graphene is electrically and thermally conductive and is a strong material.
These properties make graphene a suitable support film for electron microscopy.
The graphene used in the support films is produced by the substrate-free gas-phase method, which can synthesise ultra-high-quality graphene in a single step, without the use of substrates or graphite.
This technique results in graphene with a highly ordered structure that is composed of 99 per cent carbon by mass (one per cent hydrogen) and can be used to directly image gold nanoparticles and their organic surface molecules in both conventional and atomic-resolution TEMs.
