Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 12: Posters: New Technologies

BP 12.13: Poster

Montag, 14. März 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3

Electron cryo-microscopy of biological specimens on ultrathin graphene-like conductive carbon nanomembranes — •Daniel Rhinow¹, Matthias Büenfeld², Nils-Eike Weber², André Beyer², Janet Vonck¹, Michael Schranz³, Armin Gölzhäuser², Werner Kühlbrandt¹, Norbert Hampp³, and Andrey Turchanin² — ¹Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik, Max-von-Laue-Str. 3, 60438 Frankfurt — ²Universität Bielefeld, Fakultät für Physik, 33615 Bielefeld — ³Universität Marburg, Fachbereich Chemie, Hans-Meerwein-Str., 35032 Marburg

We have tested ultrathin carbon nanomembranes (CNM) comprising cross-linked biphenyl precursors as support films for transmission electron microscopy of biological specimens. Due to their low thickness of 1 nm CNM add virtually no phase contrast to the transmission pattern thus allowing background-free structural analysis of biological samples, which comprise mainly light elements. Furthermore, we have tested conductive carbon nanomembranes (cCNM) comprising nanocrystalline graphene, obtained by thermal treatment of CNM, as supports for cryoEM of frozen-hydrated biological samples. cCNM are graphene-like substrates, which ideally match all requirements for cryoEM of electrically insulating biological specimens. To analyze the performance of cCNM support films we used purple membranes from Halobacterium salinarum and tobacco mosaic virus as test specimens.