Metal artifacts carbon-14 analysis

Typically, colloidal suspensions are deposited on polycarbonate filters immediately following sampling to reduce post-collection precipitation or aggregation artifacts and mimic the operational procedures used to define dissolved and particulate sample components. Obviously, a well-dispersed dilute sample should be used to avoid artifactual particle overlap. Filter sections are then mounted on SEM stubs and carbon or metal coated (Au/Pd) for compositional analysis and micrographic imaging, respectively. The tedious nature of operator controlled analysis of particulate samples in the SEM and the TEM has often precluded the acquisition of statistically valid information regarding suspension composition. 

If the sample is an insulator there are still methods by which it can be studied in the instrument. The simplest approach is to coat it with a thin (10-nm) conducting film of carbon, gold, or some other metal. In following this approach, care must be taken to avoid artifacts and distortions that could be produced by nonuniform coatings or by agglomeration of the coating material. If an X-ray analysis is to be... 

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