Typhon: Multiplexed TEM Sample Preparation

Over the last decade there has been significant progress in the synthesis of inorganic and hybrid inorganic-organic nanoparticles in solution. Optimizing the synthesis conditions is often dependent on structural characterization of the nanoparticles. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) provides a method for structural characterization that provides both high-resolution details of individual particles as well as particle size distribution and morphology. The draw back to this method has been that specimen preparation is typically very low-throughput; single specimens are prepared on individual TEM grids and then imaged one at a time. Imaging several tens to hundreds of nanoparticle synthesis conditions thus requires an equal number of TEM grids, which is cumbersome, time consuming, and not feasible as a routine characterization method.