Fei helios nanolab 600i

The structural properties of neat and impregnated membranes were investigated using a two-beam microscope SEM/Ga-FIB FEI Helios NanoLab™ 600i (FEI, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, which comprises ultra-high resolution electron and ion microscopy. Energy focused beam of gallium ions allows for the selective removal of the preparation material and modification at the nanoscale, which provides the ability to perform the sample cross-sections. Before the analyses, the samples were coated with gold.

The structural properties of neat and grafted membranes were investigated using a two-beam microscope SEM/Ga-FIB FEI Helios NanoLab™ 600i, which comprises ultra-high resolution electron and ion microscopy. An energy focused beam of gallium ions provides the ability to perform the sample cross-sections by the selective removal of the preparation material and modification at the nanoscale. Before the analyses, the samples were coated with gold. Coulter^® Porometer II (Coulter Electronics Ltd., Luton Bedfordshire, UK) with porofil as a wetting liquid was used to determine the pore size distribution in the neat and grafted membranes.

The morphology of the POMs was obtained by scanning electron microscopy using the FEI-SEM system (FEI Helios Nanolab 600i, FEI, Hillsboro, OR, USA) at 5 kV. The surface chemistry was determined by FTIR spectroscopy using the Perkin–Elmer Spectrum GX-spectrophotometer (Thermo, Waltham, MA, USA) with a spectral resolution of 1 cm⁻¹ and scan number of 32. The molecular structure was confirmed by the ²⁹Si NMR technique using the Varian Inc. 400 MHz UNITY INOVA spectrometer (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA, USA) at room temperature and magic-angle spinning, resonance frequencies, and 90° pulse length of 5 kHz, 79.5 MHz, and 6.5 µs, respectively. The morphology of the gold nanoparticles on POMs were observed using the FEI Tecnai G2F30 electron microscope (FEI) operating at 200 kV. For the nanoparticle size gauge values, the average of ≥100 particles on the TEM images were taken. The UV–Vis spectra were obtained using the Evolution 201 (Thermo) UV–vis spectrophotometer with 1 cm quartz cuvettes. TGA was conducted using the Mettler TGA/DSC 3+ (Mettler-Toledo, Zurich, Switzerland) from natural temperature to 800 °C at a heating rate of 5 °C min⁻¹ under N₂ atmosphere. EA was performed using the Vario EL Cube (Elementar, Frankfurt, Germany) EA instrument. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis was performed using the Perkin-Elmer Nexion 300 (Perkin-Elmer, Waltham, MA, USA).