[3dem] Floating carbon off of mica?

[Regan M]

Dear Isabel,

Try to cut about 3mm of the bottom layer of mica sheet which goes into the
water with a scissors, and breath some moisture on to the surface of mica
before dipping into water.

greets,


On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 11:46 AM, Paolo Swuec <Paolo.Swuec at cancer.org.uk>wrote:

>   Dear Isabel,
>
>  We had the same problem in the lab. We now "bake" the mica freshly
> coated with carbon (5nm) at 50C for half a day (usually coat the mica in
> the morning and float it before leaving). It solved our problem and no more
> cracking of the carbon layer or carbon left on the mica. We do prefer to
> use the carbon as fresh as possible, it gave us best reproducibility.
>
>  paolo
>
>  Paolo Swuec,
> Architecture and Dynamics of Macromolecular Machines
> London Research Institute
> Clare Hall Laboratories
> Cancer Research UK
> South Mimms
> Herts EN6 3LD, UK
>
>  E-mail: paolo.swuec at cancer.org.uk <alessandro.costa at cancer.org.uk>
>
>
>   From: Isabel Cylinder <cylinder at ohsu.edu>
> Date: Tuesday, 13 May 2014 22:11
> To: "3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu" <3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: [3dem] Floating carbon off of mica?
>
>   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 <%28503%29%20494-8098>*
>
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