Issue 7, 2015

Graphene oxide single sheets as substrates for high resolution cryoTEM

Abstract

CryoTEM is an important tool in the analysis of soft matter, where generally defocus conditions are used to enhance the contrast in the images, but this is at the expense of the maximum resolution that can be obtained. Here, we demonstrate the use of graphene oxide single sheets as support for the formation of 10 nm thin films for high resolution cryoTEM imaging, using DNA as an example. With this procedure, the overlap of objects in the vitrified film is avoided. Moreover, in these thin films less background scattering occurs and as a direct result, an increased contrast can be observed in the images. Hence, imaging closer to focus as compared with conventional cryoTEM procedures is achieved, without losing contrast. In addition, we demonstrate an ∼1.8 fold increase in resolution, which is crucial for accurate size analysis of nanostructures.

Graphical abstract: Graphene oxide single sheets as substrates for high resolution cryoTEM

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Nov 2014
Accepted
09 Dec 2014
First published
10 Dec 2014

Soft Matter, 2015,11, 1265-1270

Author version available

Graphene oxide single sheets as substrates for high resolution cryoTEM

M. W. P. van de Put, J. P. Patterson, P. H. H. Bomans, N. R. Wilson, H. Friedrich, R. A. T. M. van Benthem, G. de With, R. K. O'Reilly and N. A. J. M. Sommerdijk, Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 1265 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM02587C

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