Soot is characterized by a multiscale structural organization and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) is the only diagnostic tool giving access to it. However, being a diffraction-based technique, TEM images only aromatic systems and thus, it is particularly useful to combine it with electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), able to provide quantitative information about the relative abundance of sp3 and sp2 hybridized carbon. In this paper a method for the EELS spectrum analysis of carbonaceous materials recently developed for electron-irradiated graphite and glassy carbon composition analysis has been applied for the first time on soot samples, in order to test its performance in soot nanostructure study in combination with TEM and High Resolution TEM (HRTEM). Soot samples here analysed were collected in the soot inception region of premixed flames of different hydrocarbon fuels. EELS, in agreement with TEM and HRTEM, showed a quite disordered and heterogeneous structure for young soot, without any significant distinction between soot formed from methane and ethylene fuels.

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a RNA-containing enveloped virus, a member of the Flaviviridae family. Here we describe a detailed analysis of the size and structure of inactivated TBEV (the Sofyin-Chumakov TBEV strain, used in vaccines). Four analytical methods were used to analyze individual TBEV particles—negative staining TEM, cryo-EM, AFM, and NTA. All methods confirmed that the particles were monodisperse, and their mean size was ~50 nm. Cryo-EM data were used to obtain a 3D electron density model of the virus with clearly distinguishable E-proteins. STEM-EELS analysis detected phosphorous in the particles, which was interpreted as the RNA signal. Altogether, the described analytical procedures can be valuable for the further analysis of vaccine inactivated virus samples.

Friction and wear take place on two solid surfaces in sliding contact as a result of the mechanical, thermal and chemical interactions with the participation of environmental species. Electron microscopy and the associated spectroscopic analyses are powerful in probing these mechanisms in spatial resolutions from micro to atomic scale. This article provides a review of the author’s work in the wear and friction mechanisms of PVD hard coatings in which various SEM- and TEM-based microscopic and spectroscopic techniques were employed. Understanding on the failure mechanisms and the origin of self-adaptive friction has been improved to nano-scale. Other related issues are also discussed, such as sample preparation techniques for cross-sectional electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy.