| Abstract: | Although the number of applications of conductive staining for SEM has recently increased investigations or discussions on the features of these methods are scanty, and so it could not be said that its features are sufficiently understood. In the present studies employing the tannin-osmium method as the conductive stain, the authors compared it with an ion-sputtering method that they use for metal coating. Besides the prevention of masking by the coating metal, there are other advantages to the conductive staining method. - 1 The appearance of the tissue “transparency”, which allows three-dimensional observations of sub-surface structures to be made.
- 2 Any damage associated with metal coating can be avoided since the specimen itself is conductive.
- 4 Hardening of specimens by the conductive stain enhances the resistance of structures to mechanical damage during preparation.
Especially the tissue transparency produced by the conductive stain might suggest new possibilities for SEM. |
