TY - JOUR
T1 - Advances in cryogenic transmission electron microscopy for the characterization of dynamic self-assembling nanostructures
AU - Newcomb, Christina J.
AU - Moyer, Tyson J.
AU - Lee, Sungsoo S.
AU - Stupp, Samuel I.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Liam Palmer for assistance with the manuscript. Research in the authors' laboratory described in this paper was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (Grant Numbers 2R01DE015920-06 , 2R01EB003806-06A2 , 1U54CA151880-01 ), the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under Contract No. DE-FG02-00ER45810 , DARPA Grant No. W911NF-09-1-0044 , and the National Science Foundation Grant No. DMR-1006713 . T.J.M. was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and S.S.L. was supported by the Samsung Scholarship Foundation . The authors are also grateful for the use of experimental facilities at the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine (IBNAM), the Biological Imaging Facility (BIF), the Integrated Molecular Structure Education and Research Center (IMSERC), the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental Center (NUANCE, EPIC, NIFTI, Keck-II) and Keck Biophysics Facilities at Northwestern University.
PY - 2012/12
Y1 - 2012/12
N2 - Elucidating the structural information of nanoscale materials in their solvent-exposed state is crucial, as a result, cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) has become an increasingly popular technique in the materials science, chemistry, and biology communities. Cryo-TEM provides a method to directly visualize the specimen structure in a solution-state through a thin film of vitrified solvent. This technique complements X-ray, neutron, and light scattering methods that probe the statistical average of all species present; furthermore, cryo-TEM can be used to observe changes in structure over time. In the area of self-assembly, this tool has been particularly powerful for the characterization of natural and synthetic small molecule assemblies, as well as hybrid organic-inorganic composites. In this review, we discuss recent advances in cryogenic TEM in the context of self-assembling systems with emphasis on characterization of transitions observed in response to external stimuli.
AB - Elucidating the structural information of nanoscale materials in their solvent-exposed state is crucial, as a result, cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) has become an increasingly popular technique in the materials science, chemistry, and biology communities. Cryo-TEM provides a method to directly visualize the specimen structure in a solution-state through a thin film of vitrified solvent. This technique complements X-ray, neutron, and light scattering methods that probe the statistical average of all species present; furthermore, cryo-TEM can be used to observe changes in structure over time. In the area of self-assembly, this tool has been particularly powerful for the characterization of natural and synthetic small molecule assemblies, as well as hybrid organic-inorganic composites. In this review, we discuss recent advances in cryogenic TEM in the context of self-assembling systems with emphasis on characterization of transitions observed in response to external stimuli.
KW - Amyloid fibril assembly
KW - Block copolymer assembly
KW - Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy
KW - Hybrid materials
KW - Peptide amphiphile
KW - Self-assembly
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cocis.2012.09.004
DO - 10.1016/j.cocis.2012.09.004
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84870672742
VL - 17
SP - 350
EP - 359
JO - Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science
JF - Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science
SN - 1359-0294
IS - 6
ER -