with permission, based on Ian M. Watt’s book¹ and article⁴

• Density: 2.2gm cm^-3
• Melting Point: around 3550°C
• Evaporation Temp.: 2400°C
  • Temperature at which a substance has a vapor pressure of 1.33 x 10-2 mbar (arbitrary)
• Average Thickness: 23nm at 5µg cm^-2 in nm

Uses:

• TEM substrates, replicas
• SEM coating of non-conducting samples for x-ray analysis
• EBSD: coating of non-conducting samples with an amorphous layer
• Microprobe: coating of non-conducting samples with highly conductive layer

Carbon films are uniformly amorphous and highly transparent to electrons because carbon has a low atomic weight.
Due to their strongly interconnected three-dimensional network structure, carbon films have remarkable mechanical stability, even when as thin as 1 - 2nm³.

At thicknesses used in electron microscopy from about 2nm upwards carbon films are chemically inert, continuous and basically free from self-structure except for a speckled appearance visible at only the highest magnifications.
Carbon depositions produce a film around the sides and back of specimens without specimen rotation (see EM picture to left). This may be explained by the deflection of light carbon atoms out of straight-line flight by collisions with gas molecules and with the walls or obstructions in a vacuum chamber.

MSDS - Material Safety Data Sheet for all Carbon and Graphite products (95KB PDF)

References:
1. Watt IM, 1985. The principles and practice of electron microscopy. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-25557-0.
2. Bradley DE, 1954. Evaporated carbon films for use in electron microscopy. Br J Appl Phys, 5, 65-66.
3. Hayat MA, 1981. Principles and techniques of electron microscopy, Vol 1 (2nd Ed), University Park Press.
4. Watt IM, November, 1991. Carbon - The electron microscopist’s most useful element. Microscopy and Analysis, pp 21-23.