Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been widely applied to characterize morphology, crystalline structure, and elemental information of membrane materials. In this chapter, fundamental knowledge of TEM techniques and their applications in membrane characterization are presented. The two basic modes of TEM, i.e., the bright-field mode and dark-field mode, are introduced and illustrated with TEM micrographs. Crystalline structure and elemental information of specimens can also be obtained. After the introduction of some common membrane sample preparation techniques, the applications of TEM techniques for the detailed characterization of membranes and their building blocks are presented in detail. The application of TEM techniques to characterization the tomography of membrane rejection layer and the morphology of fouling cake layer are also illustrated.