Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 49: Poster Nanostructures at Surfaces

O 49.11: Poster

Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 18:00–20:00, P2

Freestanding thin film cryo-EM samples for electrospray ion beam deposition and molecular imaging — •Stephanie Stankard, Stephan Rauschenbach, Lukas Eriksson, and Jingjin Fan — Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford

Over the past decade, cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has become the dominating method for imaging in structural biology, a method in which samples are conventionally made by plunge freezing.

Combining cryo-EM with soft landing, electrospray ion beam deposition (ES-IBD) is a novel approach where intact, folded protein gas phase ions are landed onto the cryo-EM samples. For this, supported grids are required, which also need to be electron-transparent, and conductive. Often also ice needs to be grown on them after protein deposition.

Here, we present an analysis and optimisation of various thin, freestanding, amorphous carbon films for the purpose of application as a ESIBD and cryo-EM substrates.

Keywords: Cryo-EM; Grids; Carbon; Films; Amorphous