Analysis of the profile roughness of core-shell microparticles by electron microscopy

From 2D and Single Particle to 3D and Batch Analysis as a Routine Quality Check Procedure for the Morphological Characterization of Core-Shell Microparticles

“…In our previous work, we have reported a systematic study with a reliable analysis tool, which evaluates profile roughness quantitatively, for individual core-shell microparticles using electron microscopy (EM) images of both types, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and transmission mode SEM (or TSEM) [5,6]. The SEM images contain two-dimensional (2D) information, therefore, provide profile roughness data only from the projection in the horizontal plane (in other words, from the "belly") of a spherical particle.…”

“…Three types of home-made particles having various roughness values were investigated in this work [5,6]: i) bare polystyrene (PS) particles, ii) PS particles decorated with a first magnetic iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticle shell forming CS microbeads, and iii) PS/Fe 3 O 4 particles closed with a second silica (SiO 2 ) shell forming core-shell-shell (CSS) microbeads. The most suitable sample preparation procedure prior to microscopy and analysis was considered as follows: the particles have been suspended in ethanol with ultrasonication for 5 min and samples for analysis have been prepared by drop-casting on conventional carbon TEM grids.…”