[3dem] Floating carbon off of mica?

[Smith, Phillip R.]

Part of the problem might be poor control of the mica as you're floating the film off.  

This might help:  http://www.laddresearch.com/grids-storage-boxes-support-film/smith-grid-coating-trough

-Ross Smith-

On May 13, 2014, at 5:24 PM, Saikat Chowdhury <saikatbioinfo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Isabel,
> Something that works for me is by letting the carbon coated mica sit in a 60C oven for a day or two. This helps in making the carbon film harder and more easier to handle. Also make sure that the freshly cleaved mica surface is very smooth and free of tiny mica fragments, dust or particulates.
> Good luck,
> Saikat
> 
> 
> On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 2:11 PM, Isabel Cylinder <cylinder at ohsu.edu> wrote:
> Hello- 
> 
> I'm currently attempting to float a thin carbon film off of mica and onto EM grids. I was able to successfully complete the procedure before using a very thick layer generated by a very old carbon evaporator, but now we have a new machine and can key in layer thickness to the nanometer. That said, I'm creating a 10 nm layer of carbon on a 1"x3" piece of mica, and when I try to float the carbon into a Buchner funnel full of water, it crumbles and fragments and I am left with no useable pieces of carbon to float down onto my EM grids. My next step will be to try a 20 nm layer of carbon on a smaller piece of mica. 
> 
> Does anybody have any experiences like this? How did you fix this problem? Any tips? 
> 
> Any and all help is appreciated. Thank you! 
> 
> Isabel Cylinder
> Research Assistant II
> Barklis Lab
> Molecular Microbiology & Immunology 
> Oregon Health & Science University 
> (503) 494-8098
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> SAIKAT CHOWDHURY
> (Postdoctoral Research Associate --- Lander Lab)
> Dept. of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology
> The Scripps Research Institute. HZ 102L
> 10550 N Torrey Pines Rd.
> La Jolla CA 92037
> 
> "If you think you know it, then you do not know it, and if you know that you cannot know it, then you know it"- G. N Ramachandran from Kenopanishad
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