Micro & Nano Imaging

Micro and Nano Imaging Division (MNI) is the technical division of the Central Laboratory of Life Science at Universitas Brawijaya, with its main role to acquire FESEM photographs in research. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope or FESEM is a microscope that can provide a 3D image of specimen surface at high-level magnification with a resolution ~ 1 nm. This instrument is equipped with an EDS (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy) system to determine the abundance of elements and create element composition maps of the scanned area. A FESEM is useful in any field of research with any specimen in the form of powder, solid, gel, or liquid. An excellent feature of the MNI division’s FESEM that makes it different from a conventional SEM is that the observation of nonconducting specimens does not need to be sputter coated with a conductive material.

Another instrument that the MNI division manages to support the research is an X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD). The XRD acquires diffraction data of crystals in materials indicating the phase and order in their microstructures.  This instrument also supports the acquisition of XRR and SAXS diffractograms for thin film and nanoparticle research fields. The right way of XRD data analysis will give information that supports FESEM visualization.

FESEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope)

Brand                   : FEI

Type                    : Quanta FEG 650

Model                  : Floor stand machine

Electron source   : Schottky FEG (Field Emission Gun)

Detector              : Everhart-Thornley Detector (ETD) for SEI mode of High-vacuum; Large Field Detector (LFD) for SEI mode of Low-vacuum; Gaseous Secondary Electron Detector (GSED) SEI for ESEM mode; vCD (very low voltage high contrast detector) for BSE-image, Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) for elemental mapping in microanalysis, STEM II detector for wetSTEM mode.

Features               : resolution ~1 nm; Magnification > 300.000X; Multi stub-stage up to 16 stubs of 12 mm stub; Single stub-stage (high and low) for rotating and tilting stage up to 70o; High-vacuum mode for conductive specimen; Low-vacuum and ESEM (Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope) mode for non-conductive and biological specimen;  wetSTEM mode for biological tissue specimen or film with thickness ~ 150 nm in BF/DF or BF/DF/HAADF image and the 3 mm TEM grid 100 mesh specimen finder; Peltier-cooled stage for biological in liquid specimen; the well-shaped holder (conical, flat shallow, and flat depth) for liquid specimen.

XRD (X-Ray Diffractometer)

Brand                   : PANalytical

Type                    : X’Pert3 Powder

Model                  : Floor stand machine

X-Ray source      : Cu

Detector              : X’Celerator

Features               : varied capacity of specimen holder (mass of 0.05 g – 1 g); XRD mode for powder and bulk specimen; XRR  mode for thin film measurement; SAXS mode for nanoparticle or nanopores measurement; Highscore plus software with ICSD and ICDD PDF-2 2018 for XRD data analysis; X-Ray Reflectivity software; and easySAXS software.