Jsm 6480lv

Elemental composition and morphological investigations of the samples under consideration in the present work were conducted, respectively, on the SEM microscopes: a JEOL-JSM-6480LV (JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), with an integrated XEDS system for a microanalysis purpose, and a FE-SEM ZEISS Merlin (Carl ZEISS, Oberkochen, Germany, GmbH), operating with an accelerating voltage of 10 kV and short acquisition times of a few seconds, for sample damage minimization. The percentage uncertainty in the chemical composition estimated by EDS was found to be of < 2% on the relative weight of each atomic species investigated
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) topography images were measured by a Park XE-70 Instruments microscope (Park Systems, Suwon, Korea) operating under non-contact mode at room temperature in air environment. The scan size was set as 10 × 10 μm². Average roughness R_a is provided to characterize the roughness characteristics of the PLD-deposited films.

TEM images were recorded by a JEOL Jem 1011 microscope operating at an accelerating voltage of 100 kV. TEM samples were prepared by dropping a dilute solution of AgNPs in water on carbon-coated copper grids (Formvar/Carbon 300 Mesh Cu). Microscopy observations were made by means of a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM, JEOL JSM-6480LV operating at an accelerating voltage of 10 kV, JEOL USA, Inc., Peabody, MA, USA). The sample was prepared by dropping a solution of AgNPs in water on monocrystalline silicon wafer. DLS and ζ-Potential measurements were performed on a Zetasizer Nano ZS90 (Malvern, Worcestershire, UK). Measurements were made at 25 °C in milliQ water and in cell culture medium used for cell experiments after 48 h of incubation. The optical absorbance spectra of AgNPs in water was measured with a Cary 300 UV–vis spectrophotometer (Varian, Palo Alto Palo Alto, California, USA) at a resolution of 1 nm using 5 mm path length quartz cuvettes.

The grain size analysis was carried out on an Analysette 22 MicroTec Plus Laser Particle Sizer (Fritsch GmbH—Milling and Sizing, Germany) using a rock sample dispersed in distilled water. An XRD approach was applied to estimate the mineral composition of the substrate using a DRON-3M diffractometer (Bourevestnik Inc., Russia). The BSE images were obtained on an electronic scanning microscope Jeol JSM-6480LV (Jeol Ltd., Japan) with energy-dispersive Oxford X-Max^N Silicon Drift Detector and crystal-diffractive INCA Wave-500 WDS spectrometer (Oxford Instrument Ltd., UK). The chemical composition of the rock samples was determined by an XRF analysis using a wavelength-dispersive XRF spectrometer PW 2400 (Philips Analytical, the Netherlands). The microindentation hardness (Vickers test) of the rocks was measured using a PMT-3M Vickers Microhardness Tester (LOMO, Russia) with 100 g load. The tester was calibrated using NaCl crystal with 10 g load. Several fragments of the substrate were placed into briquette and were fixed with epoxy glue with subsequent polishing of the surface. Five indentations were performed on each rock fragment, and both diagonals of indentation mark were measured. A mean microhardness value was calculated based on 20 measurements.

SEM analysis was performed on samples 1–9 in a JEOL JSM-6480 LV (JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Each sample was mounted onto SEM stubs using carbon tape and was placed into a vacuum for 24 h prior to analysis to outgas. A secondary electron detector was used to capture micrographs of each surface at 10 kV. Optimization of the imaging voltage, current, and focal distance was performed using the manufacturer’s recommended approach to achieve high-quality, focused micrographs of each sample.
An Oxford Instruments X-Max detector (Oxford Instruments, High Wycombe, UK) was used to capture EDX points and line scans from each sample. An accelerating voltage of 20 kV was used to generate a spot size of 0.2 μm, which collected data with an increment of 0.25 μm and a dwell of 30 s. These parameters were based on EDX best practice; selection of the accelerating voltage was based on the X-ray absorption energies expected within the samples, and the dwell time was selected to achieve a photon count greater than 100,000 [24 ]. This analysis was used to determine the chemical composition as a function of position and the elemental makeup of any contaminants.

Raw silk samples were processed according the Bertazzo protocol [61 ]. Briefly, silk samples were fixed with electron microscopy grade glutaraldehyde (TAAB Laboratories, Berks, UK) at a final concentration of 2.5% in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) for 2 h at 4 °C. Samples were washed three times in PBS. Next, they were refixed in the dark at RT with 2% osmium tetroxide (TAAB Laboratories) in PBS for 2 h. Finally, three 30-min washes were performed with PBS. Next, samples were dehydrated by immersion in solutions of increasing ethanol concentration for 30 min each step (30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, 3 × 96% and 3 × 100%). Sample drying was carried out using a critical-point desiccator model CPD 030 from BAL-TEC Inc (Liechtenstein). Samples were immediately gold-coated and mounted on aluminum stabs to be examined with a Scanning Electron Microscope model JSM-6480 LV from JEOL (Tokyo, Japan).
Samples for TEM analysis were prepared according to the protocol described by Wang et al. [28 (link)] and observed under a transmission electron microscope model JEM-1010 (JEOL).

Most of the material treated here derives from the collection of the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (MRAC), Tervuren, Belgium, with only a few duplicates retained for the collections of the University of Yaounde 1 (UY1) and the second author (ARNF), Cameroon or donated to the Zoological Museum, State University of Moscow (ZMUM), Russia, as indicated below. The samples are stored in 70% ethanol. Specimens for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were air-dried, mounted on aluminium stubs, coated with gold and studied using a JEOL JSM-6480LV scanning electron microscope. The colour pictures were taken using the focus stacking setup described by Brecko et al. (2014) (link). Canon EOS Utility software was used to control the camera. Zerene Stacker was applied for stacking the individual pictures into one ‘stacked image’.
The abbreviations used to denote gonopodal structures are explained directly in the text and figure captions.