Size measurement of spherical nanoparticles using transmission electron microscopy and specialized software

The article deals with the possibilities of measuring the size of metal nanoparticles using automatic analysis of images obtained by transmission electron microscopy. The features of processing microphotographs using the ImageJ, Pebbles and SPIP programs were researched. The data obtained using these programs were compared with the results of manual measurement of nanoparticles. The accuracy of measuring the diameters of spherical copper-containing and palladium nanoparticles has been established. The influence of the software used on the determination of the particle size distribution is determined. The efficiency of using automatic methods for images with different characteristics (contrast, sharpness, scale, number of particles and clarity of their contours, etc.) is estimated. The disadvantages and advantages of the studied programs in comparison with manual calculation are identified. Recommendations are given for further research in the framework of this issue.