Advances in Microwave-Assisted Processing For Electron Microscopy

Abstract The history of microwave-assisted processing has been dominated by the idea that microwave heating was an integral part of the equation. The separation of a microwave component from the heating effects of the radiation during sample processing has been experimentally difficult. Combined with this difficulty has been the closed cavity design of microwave ovens. This design is typical of laboratory and household ovens and results in the formation of “hot” and “cold” spots within the chamber. These spots produce regions in close proximity to each other which have widely varying heating effects on samples. A second factor to consider with microwave heating is the effect wattage output has on rate and extent of microwave induced heating. Peak wattage outputs of all laboratory and most household microwave ovens are in excess of 650W. As a result the vast majority of all microwave-assisted protocols are based on heating parameters associated with high wattage processing.