S150a sputter coater

Zircon grains were mounted in an epoxy mould that was ground down and then polished using a 3-micron pad followed by 1-micron pad to finish and a 1-micron diamond paste on a Struers Rotopol-35 equipment to expose grain interior. The mould was gold coated using an Edwards S150A sputter coater. Cathodoluminescence (CL) and backscatter (BS) images were obtained with a Zeiss MERLIN Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM). The CL images were used to identify different internal zoning patterns within the individual zircon grains (core and rim); whereas the BSE images were used to constrain the ablated spots to avoid parts with fractures and holes which could affect the quality of results.

The synthesized polymer was subjected to various evaluation methods: FT-IR spectra were obtained using KBr pellets on an FT-IR spectrometer (Nicolet 670, range: 4000 to 400 cm⁻¹, USA). Surface morphology was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (JXA-840A Electron probe microanalyzer, JEOL, Japan) with an accelerating voltage of 30 kV after coating with a gold film via the S150A Sputter Coater (Edwards, England). Drug loading and release investigations were conducted using a double-beam spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-2401 PC, Japan). Microwave experiments utilized the CEM Discovering LabMate microwave device (300 W, ChemDriver software; Matthews, NC) in a sealed chamber with pressure, employing microwave-irradiated covered-Pyrex tubes.

Eight-day (t₈) neurospheres were collected, washed in PBS, and fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0.1 M PBS (pH 7.4) for 2 h at 4°C. The fixed neurospheres were carefully washed four times in PBS, postfixed in 1% osmium tetroxide (OsO₄) in 0.1 M PBS for 1 h at 4°C, and stored in PBS at 4°C until embedding. The samples used for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were dehydrated in series of increasing acetone concentrations and embedded in epoxy resin for ultrathin sectioning at 60°C overnight. The ultrathin slices cut with an 8800 Ultratome (LKB, Bromma, Sweden) were stained with 4% uranyl acetate and lead citrate and viewed on a Zeiss EM 109–902 transmission electron microscope (Zeiss, Oberchochen Germany). For scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the postfixed neurospheres were incubated in pure hexamethyldisilazane for 1 h at 4°C, dried in a critical point dryer (Polaron, Watford, UK), and metalized in an S150A Sputter Coater (Edwards, Crawley, UK) for scanning in Quanta 200 (FEI, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) or DSM 962 SEM instruments (Zeiss, Oberchochen, Germany).