Utilization of integrated correlative light and electron microscopy (iCLEM) for imaging sedimentary organic matter

We report here a new microscopic technique for imaging and identifying sedimentary organic matter in geologic materials that combines inverted fluorescence microscopy with scanning electron microscopy and allows for sequential imaging of the same region of interest without transferring the sample between instruments. This integrated correlative light and electron microscopy technique is demonstrated with observations from an immature lacustrine oil shale from the Eocene Green River Mahogany Zone and mid‐oil window paralic shale from the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa Group. This technique has the potential to allow for identification and characterization of organic matter in shale hydrocarbon reservoirs that is not possible using either light or electron microscopy alone, and may be applied to understanding the organic matter type and thermal regime in which organic nanoporosity forms, thereby reducing uncertainty in the estimation of undiscovered hydrocarbon resources. Lay Description This work describes sequential imaging of organic matter in geologic materials (the sedimentary rock shale) via electron and fluorescence microscopy combined in the same instrument. This technique has potential to improve and facilitate identification of organic matter at the high magnifications (up to >100,000x) required to image organic nano‐porosity. Organic nano‐porosity is thought to control hydrocarbon migration and storage in shale; therefore, understanding which types of organic ...
Source: Journal of Microscopy - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research