Bulk synthesis of conductive non-metallic carbon nanospheres and a 3D printed carrier device for scanning electron microscope calibration

Herein, a facile method is proposed for the bulk synthesis of conductive non-metallic carbon nanospheres with controllable morphology to replace conventional metal calibration reference materials (CRMs), such as gold nanoparticles and copper grids. The prepared nanospheres had an average diameter of ∼222 ± 23 nm, where silicon dioxide formed the core and the shell was comprised of the carbon layer. The structure of the conductive carbon nanospheres was characterized using FTIR, SEM, EDS and TEM. Additionally, an innovative design was demonstrated by 3D printing the calibration carrier device. Furthermore, the stability and image linear distortion of the conductive carbon nanospheres were verified using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results demonstrated that the accelerating voltage, magnification, and various positions in the X/Y axes had no significant effect on measured diameter of nanospheres, which was evident from all the p values being greater than 0.05. The comprehensive set of results reveal that conductive carbon nanospheres have great potential to replace traditional CRMs.