Comparative study of nanoscale surface structures of calcite microcrystals using FE-SEM, AFM, and TEM

The bulk morphology and surface features that developed upon precipitation on micrometer-size calcite powders and millimeter-size cleavage fragments were imaged by three different microscopic techniques: field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of Pt-C replicas, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Each technique can resolve some nanoscale surface features, but they offer different ranges of magnification and dimensional resolutions. Because sample preparation and imaging is not constrained by crystal orientation, FE-SEM and TEM of Pt-C replicas are best suited to image the overall morphology of microcrystals. However, owing to the decoration effect of Pt-C on the crystal faces, TEM of Pt-C replicas is superior at resolving nanoscale surface structures, including the development of new faces and the different microtopography among nonequivalent faces in microcrystals, which cannot be revealed by FE-SEM. In conjunction with SEM, Pt-C replica provides the evidence that crystals grow in diverse and face-specific modes. The TEM imaging of Pt-C replicas has nanoscale resolution comparable to AFM. AFM yielded quantitative information (e.g., crystallographic orientation and height of steps) of microtopographic features. In contrast to Pt-C replicas and SEM providing three-dimensional images of the crystals, AFM can only image one individual cleavage or flat surface at a time.