Airtight container for the transfer of atmosphere-sensitive materials into vacuum-operated characterization instruments

This paper describes the design and operation of a simple airtight container devised to facilitate the transfer of atmosphere-sensitive samples from a glovebox to the vacuum chamber of an analytical instrument such as a scanning electron microscope. The use of this device for characterizing the microstructure of highly hygroscopic strontium iodide ceramics by scanning electron microscopy is illustrated as an application example.