ENVIRONMENTAL SEM Laboratory

Room 107, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research,
University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, N9B 3P4
Technician:  Sharon Lackie, Room 109
Phone:  (519) 253-3000 Ext. 4850 (office), Ext. 4932 (SEM Lab)
Fax:  (519) 971-3616
e-mail:  sharonl@uwindsor.ca

ENVIRONMENTAL SEM      

Unlike a traditional SEM, the Environmental SEM can view wet materials.  This includes fresh biological tissue, oily samples, or samples which outgas.  Using either Low Vacuum Mode or the Environmental Mode, the chamber maintains high humidity and relatively high pressure, allowing the fresh or wet materials to retain their original characteristics and shape.  Thus, biological samples do not need to be dehydrated or coated prior to examination in the SEM.  This reduces the risk of artifacts and distortion, and may give a more true image of the original structure.

The Environmental SEM can image non-conductive samples in a non-destructive way.  Using Low Vacuum or Environmental Mode allows us to image non-conductive samples without coating them with a conductive material.  Due to the water vapour in the sample chamber, the normal charging from non-conductive samples is neutralized, thus eliminating the need for coating.  Therefore, samples which the user does not want to damage by coating with carbon or gold can still be imaged with great resolution.  This is important for valuable samples, samples that will be used for further tests, samples in which the coating material would interfere with EDS results, fresh biological samples, archaeological samples, or forensic samples.  

Fresh, Unprocessed, Uncoated  Rose of Sharon Stigmatic Surface with Pollen Grain Imaged in Environmental Mode