New sectioning techniques for preparation of materials and biological samples for; TEM, SEM, 3D, Volume and Correlative Microscopy

Jeremy REES, RMC Products, Tucson AZ, USA

Ultramicotomy is well established as a major method for biological sample preparation. However, for the materials researcher, ultramicrotomy can also be used for a wide range of samples such as polymers, metals, ceramics and semiconductors. It is a uniform and chemically benign technique. Advantages of ultramicrotomy include; no use of polishing compound and associated scratches, no chemical etching, no ion Implantation and minimal temperature effects. Sections can be of very uniform thickness and of a relatively large area; often the researcher can quite precisely select the sample location. We will show results of ultramicrotomy on samples that include; semiconductors, multilayers, paint, mineral and catalysts. Certain materials samples are best sectioned at low temperatures and examples of cryosectioned rubbers, polymers, starch grains and hydrogels will be discussed. Ultramicrotomy is a very versatile and benign method of sample preparation for a wide range of materials samples.

We will show the latest technology in ultramicrotomy (ATUMtome) that automates unattended serial sectioning for array tomography (3D or “volume” microscopy) applications. Thousands of sections can be collected in a non-destructive way and these can be stored for many years in an archive for future re-investigation. Sections are imaged in a modern FEG SEM equipped with an automated array tomography system that facilitates analysis of sections at high resolution.

We will also show a new precision device (ASH) that allows sections to be collected for Array Tomography on conductive substrates. This non-destructive method preserves the sectioned samples enabling correlative imaging. Different imaging techniques such as light microscopy (LM) and electron microscopy (EM) are applied on the same sample thus facilitating correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM).   

 
Back to TS.VII.C