Tecnai f30st

The electron micrographs were measured at the Electron Microscopy Center of the ETH Zurich (EMEZ). Transmission electron microscopy pictures were taken with a FEI Tecnai F30ST transmission electron microscope operating at 300 kV or with a Phillips CM12 transmission electron microscope operated at 100 kV. Scanning electron microscopy pictures were obtained using a dual beam focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM) NVision from Zeiss (Oberkochen, Germany), with ESB detector.

To observe approximate number of trapped nanoparticles in between nanoelectrodes, scanning electron microscopy is done by using Zeiss LEO 1550 after electrical characterization of all devices. For SEM imaging, the microscope is operated at 15 kV and inlens detector is utilized to record images.
In this study, transmission electron microscopy has been carried out in order to measure inter-nanoparticle distances and agglomeration before and after removal of the trityl protective groups from alkanedithiol in nanoparticle dispersion. Transmission electron microscopy was carried out using FEI Tecnai F30 ST at 300 kV. A 10 μL drop of ω-trityl protected 1,8-octanedithiol molecules coated gold nanoparticles solution was poured on TEM carbon grid and immediately blown-dried with nitrogen to prevent nanoparticle agglomeration due to drying. To remove the protective trityl groups, deprotection solution was added to the gold nanoparticle dispersion, after few minutes again a 10 μL drop was added on the carbon TEM grid and blow-dried with nitrogen, again in order to prevent agglomeration due to drying.