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Title: Imaging Unstained Synthetic Polymer Crystals and Defects on Atomic Length Scales Using Cryogenic Electron Microscopy

Journal Article · · Macromolecules
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [4]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). College of Chemistry
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry; Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
  5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division

Properties of soft crystalline materials such as synthetic polymers are governed by locations of constituent atoms. Determining atomic-scale structures in these materials is difficult because they degrade rapidly when studied by electron microscopy, and techniques such as x-ray scattering average over volumes much larger than coherent blocks of the unit cells. We obtained cryo-electron microscopy images of self-assembled nanosheets of a peptoid polymer, made by solid-phase synthesis, in which we see a variety of crystalline motifs. A combination of crystallographic and single particle methods, developed for cryo-electron microscopy of biological macromolecules, was used to obtain high resolution images of the crystals. Individual crystals contain grains that are mirror images of each other with concomitant grain boundaries. We have used molecular dynamic simulations to build an atomic model of the crystal structure to facilitate the interpretation of electron micrographs. Direct visualization of crystalline grains and grain boundaries on atomic length scales represents a new level of information for the polymer field.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1507257
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1601193
Journal Information:
Macromolecules, Vol. 51, Issue 19; ISSN 0024-9297
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 30 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Recent advances in crystallization and self‐assembly of polypeptoid polymers journal June 2019
Atomic-level engineering and imaging of polypeptoid crystal lattices journal October 2019
Design and preparation of organic nanomaterials using self‐assembled peptoids journal February 2019

Figures / Tables (3)