Energy filtered transmission electron microscopy for the physico-chemical characterization of aquatic submicron colloids

A combination of energy filtered transmission electron microscopic (EF-TEM) procedures is proposed for the non-perturbing physico-chemical characterization of submicron mineral and organic colloids in aquatic systems. Synthetic hematite microparticles and xanthan polysaccharides were used as well-characterized model colloids in order to determine the optimum EF-TEM analysis conditions. In this paper, it is demonstrated that (i) our model colloids are morphologically representative of naturally occurring mineral/organic associations, (ii) EF-TEM allows the detection of fine xanthan ultrastructures without artefacts of conventional staining methods and (iii) submicron hematite particles can be specifically visualized and spectrometrically measured by EF-TEM within a hematite/xanthan mixture. This EF-TEM procedure appears to be appropriate for the characterization of real aquatic samples.