Direct Observation of Wet Biological Samples by Graphene Liquid Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy

Park, Jungwon; Park, Hyesung; Ercius, Peter; Pegoraro, Adrian F.; Xu, Chen; Kim, Jin Woong; Han, Sang Hoon; Weitz, David A.

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01636

Direct Observation of Wet Biological Samples by Graphene Liquid Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy

Journal Article · Fri Jun 12 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01636· OSTI ID:1670114

Park, Jungwon ^[1]; Park, Hyesung ^[2]; Ercius, Peter ^[3]; Pegoraro, Adrian F. ^[1]; Xu, Chen ^[4]; Kim, Jin Woong ^[5]; Han, Sang Hoon ^[6]; Weitz, David A. ^[1]

Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Brandeis Univ., Waltham, MA (United States)
Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
Amore-Pacific Co. R&D Center, Yongin (Korea, Republic of)

Recent development of liquid phase transmission electron microscopy (TEM) enables the study of specimens in wet ambient conditions within a liquid cell; however, direct structural observation of biological samples in their native solution using TEM is challenging since low-mass biomaterials embedded in a thick liquid layer of the host cell demonstrate low contrast. Furthermore, the integrity of delicate wet samples is easily compromised during typical sample preparation and TEM imaging. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a graphene liquid cell (GLC) using multilayer graphene sheets to reliably encapsulate and preserve biological samples in a liquid for TEM observation. We achieve nanometer scale spatial resolution with high contrast using low-dose TEM at room temperature, and we use the GLC to directly observe the structure of influenza viruses in their native buffer solution at room temperature. The GLC is further extended to investigate whole cells in wet conditions using TEM. We also demonstrate the potential of the GLC for correlative studies by TEM and fluorescence light microscopy imaging.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22), Scientific User Facilities Division (SC-22.3)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1670114

Journal Information:: Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 15; ISSN 1530-6984

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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