Deposit a dilute dispersion onto a clean, electron-transparent TEM support and let the ethanol evaporate. A practical sequence is to redisperse gently, dilute enough to reduce overlap, place a small drop on a holey or lacey support grid, wick away excess liquid and dry thoroughly. Choose support chemistry compatible with wetting by ethanol.
Look for flakes spanning support holes, where no support film obscures the light-element lattice. Adjacent supported regions help locate and stabilize the flakes. Dilution reduces accidental multilayer stacks, while a clean grid and clean solvent reduce hydrocarbon background. Gentle agitation may be useful; prolonged aggressive sonication can itself change the defects one intends to measure.
Drying prevents a volatile liquid from entering the microscope vacuum. Additional cleaning must be chosen cautiously because heating or energetic plasma treatment can alter oxygen groups and defects in reduced graphene oxide. Record a low-dose survey before atomic-resolution imaging, and distinguish pre-existing defects from changes induced during acquisition.
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