Melamine formaldehyde (MF) microspheres are widely used in dusty plasma experiments for their monodispersity, sphericity and low mass density. Such experiments rely on the stability of the MF particles properties.
This paper deals with the influence of experimental conditions on MF particle properties (focusing on dust particle-electron interaction) in dust charging experiment as well as in the scanning electron microscope (SEM). We have found that the size of these particles decreases with the exposure to the electron beam.
The change in their diameter reaches about 10 % where the decrease seems to be saturated.