Non‐artifacted specimen preparation for transmission electron microscopy of submicron soil particles

Abstract
An adapted centrifugation procedure is proposed for the preparation of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) specimens of soil solutions. The centrifugation method allows to quantitatively produce non artefacted specimens of soil solutions in order to visualize colloids present within the soil. The soil of interest is a well stratified Alpin Podzol where colloids <0.45 μm were studied. The complete scheme of centrifugation is presented in this paper. The results obtained by TEM on lysimeter solutions and soil suspensions are discussed.