Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

0 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Dynamics of soft nanomaterials captured by transmission electron microscopy in liquid water.

ABSTRACT: In this paper we present in situ transmission electron microscopy of synthetic polymeric nanoparticles with emphasis on capturing motion in a solvated, aqueous state. The nanoparticles studied were obtained from the direct polymerization of a Pt(II)-containing monomer. The resulting structures provided sufficient contrast for facile imaging in situ. We contend that this technique will quickly become essential in the characterization of analogous systems, especially where dynamics are of interest in the solvated state. We describe the preparation of the synthetic micellar nanoparticles together with their characterization and motion in liquid water with comparison to conventional electron microscopy analyses.

SUBMITTER: Proetto MT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4021868 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Publications

Dynamics of soft nanomaterials captured by transmission electron microscopy in liquid water.

Proetto Maria T MT Rush Anthony M AM Chien Miao-Ping MP Abellan Baeza Patricia P Patterson Joseph P JP Thompson Matthew P MP Olson Norman H NH Moore Curtis E CE Rheingold Arnold L AL Andolina Christopher C Millstone Jill J Howell Stephen B SB Browning Nigel D ND Evans James E JE Gianneschi Nathan C NC

Journal of the American Chemical Society 20140114 4

In this paper we present in situ transmission electron microscopy of synthetic polymeric nanoparticles with emphasis on capturing motion in a solvated, aqueous state. The nanoparticles studied were obtained from the direct polymerization of a Pt(II)-containing monomer. The resulting structures provided sufficient contrast for facile imaging in situ. We contend that this technique will quickly become essential in the characterization of analogous systems, especially where dynamics are of interest ...[more]

PMID: 24422495

Similar Datasets

Charged nanoparticle dynamics in water induced by scanning transmission electron microscopy.

Project description:Using scanning transmission electron microscopy we image ~4 nm platinum nanoparticles deposited on an insulating membrane, where the membrane is one of two electron-transparent windows separating an aqueous environment from the microscope's high vacuum. Upon receiving a relatively moderate dose of ~10(4) e/nm(2), initially immobile nanoparticles begin to move along trajectories that are directed radially outward from the center of the field of view. With larger dose rates the particle motion becomes increasingly dramatic. These observations demonstrate that, even under mild imaging conditions, the in situ electron microscopy of aqueous environments can produce electrophoretic charging effects that dominate the dynamics of nanoparticles under observation.

| S-EPMC3305795 | biostudies-literature

Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy and its applications.

Project description:Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has long been an essential tool for understanding the structure of materials. Over the past couple of decades, this venerable technique has undergone a number of revolutions, such as the development of aberration correction for atomic level imaging, the realization of cryogenic TEM for imaging biological specimens, and new instrumentation permitting the observation of dynamic systems in situ. Research in the latter has rapidly accelerated in recent years, based on a silicon-chip architecture that permits a versatile array of experiments to be performed under the high vacuum of the TEM. Of particular interest is using these silicon chips to enclose fluids safely inside the TEM, allowing us to observe liquid dynamics at the nanoscale. In situ imaging of liquid phase reactions under TEM can greatly enhance our understanding of fundamental processes in fields from electrochemistry to cell biology. Here, we review how in situ TEM experiments of liquids can be performed, with a particular focus on microchip-encapsulated liquid cell TEM. We will cover the basics of the technique, and its strengths and weaknesses with respect to related in situ TEM methods for characterizing liquid systems. We will show how this technique has provided unique insights into nanomaterial synthesis and manipulation, battery science and biological cells. A discussion on the main challenges of the technique, and potential means to mitigate and overcome them, will also be presented.

| S-EPMC7029903 | biostudies-literature

Coalescence dynamics of platinum group metal nanoparticles revealed by liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy.

Project description:Coalescence, one of the major pathways observed in the growth of nanoparticles, affects the structural diversity of the synthesized nanoparticles in terms of sizes, shapes, and grain boundaries. As coalescence events occur transiently during the growth of nanoparticles and are associated with the interaction between nanoparticles, mechanistic understanding is challenging. The ideal platform to study coalescence events may require real-time tracking of nanoparticle growth trajectories with quantitative analysis for coalescence events. Herein, we track nanoparticle growth trajectories using liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) to investigate the role of coalescence in nanoparticle formation and their morphologies. By evaluating multiple coalescence events for different platinum group metals, we reveal that the surface energy and ligand binding energy determines the rate of the reshaping process and the resulting final morphology of coalesced nanoparticles. The coalescence mechanism, based on direct LTEM observation explains the structures of noble metal nanoparticles that emerge in colloidal synthesis.

| S-EPMC9307684 | biostudies-literature

Upper critical solution temperature polymer assemblies via variable temperature liquid phase transmission electron microscopy and liquid resonant soft X-ray scattering.

Project description:Here, we study the upper critical solution temperature triggered phase transition of thermally responsive poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate-co-poly(ethylene glycol) phenyl ether acrylate-block-polystyrene nanoassemblies in isopropanol. To gain mechanistic insight into the organic solution-phase dynamics of the upper critical solution temperature polymer, we leverage variable temperature liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy correlated with variable temperature liquid resonant soft X-ray scattering. Heating above the upper critical solution temperature triggers a reduction in particle size and a morphological transition from a spherical core shell particle with a complex, multiphase core to a micelle with a uniform core and Gaussian polymer chains attached to the surface. These correlated solution phase methods, coupled with mass spectral validation and modeling, provide unique insight into these thermoresponsive materials. Moreover, we detail a generalizable workflow for studying complex, solution-phase nanomaterials via correlative methods.

| S-EPMC10257671 | biostudies-literature

Toward sub-second solution exchange dynamics in flow reactors for liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy.

Project description:Liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy is a burgeoning experimental technique for monitoring nanoscale dynamics in a liquid environment, increasingly employing microfluidic reactors to control the composition of the sample solution. Current challenges comprise fast mass transport dynamics inside the central nanochannel of the liquid cell, typically flow cells, and reliable fixation of the specimen in the limited imaging area. In this work, we present a liquid cell concept - the diffusion cell - that satisfies these seemingly contradictory requirements by providing additional on-chip bypasses to allow high convective transport around the nanochannel in which diffusive transport predominates. Diffusion cell prototypes are developed using numerical mass transport models and fabricated on the basis of existing two-chip setups. Important hydrodynamic parameters, i.e., the total flow resistance, the flow velocity in the imaging area, and the time constants of mixing, are improved by 2-3 orders of magnitude compared to existing setups. The solution replacement dynamics achieved within seconds already match the mixing timescales of many ex-situ scenarios, and further improvements are possible. Diffusion cells can be easily integrated into existing liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy workflows, provide correlation of results with ex-situ experiments, and can create additional research directions addressing fast nanoscale processes.

| S-EPMC10957994 | biostudies-literature

Goethite Mineral Dissolution to Probe the Chemistry of Radiolytic Water in Liquid-Phase Transmission Electron Microscopy.

Project description:Liquid-Phase Transmission Electron Microscopy (LP-TEM) enables in situ observations of the dynamic behavior of materials in liquids at high spatial and temporal resolution. During LP-TEM, incident electrons decompose water molecules into highly reactive species. Consequently, the chemistry of the irradiated aqueous solution is strongly altered, impacting the reactions to be observed. However, the short lifetime of these reactive species prevent their direct study. Here, the morphological changes of goethite during its dissolution are used as a marker system to evaluate the influence of radiation on the changes in solution chemistry. At low electron flux density, the morphological changes are equivalent to those observed under bulk acidic conditions, but the rate of dissolution is higher. On the contrary, at higher electron fluxes, the morphological evolution does not correspond to a unique acidic dissolution process. Combined with kinetic simulations of the steady state concentrations of generated reactive species in the aqueous medium, the results provide a unique insight into the redox and acidity interplay during radiation induced chemical changes in LP-TEM. The results not only reveal beam-induced radiation chemistry via a nanoparticle indicator, but also open up new perspectives in the study of the dissolution process in industrial or natural settings.

| S-EPMC10477898 | biostudies-literature

The role of electron irradiation history in liquid cell transmission electron microscopy.

Project description:In situ liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LC-TEM) allows dynamic nanoscale characterization of systems in a hydrated state. Although powerful, this technique remains impaired by issues of repeatability that limit experimental fidelity and hinder the identification and control of some variables underlying observed dynamics. We detail new LC-TEM devices that improve experimental reproducibility by expanding available imaging area and providing a platform for investigating electron flux history on the sample. Irradiation history is an important factor influencing LC-TEM results that has, to this point, been largely qualitatively and not quantitatively described. We use these devices to highlight the role of cumulative electron flux history on samples from both nanoparticle growth and biological imaging experiments and demonstrate capture of time zero, low-dose images on beam-sensitive samples. In particular, the ability to capture pristine images of biological samples, where the acquired image is the first time that the cell experiences significant electron flux, allowed us to determine that nanoparticle movement compared to the cell membrane was a function of cell damage and therefore an artifact rather than visualizing cell dynamics in action. These results highlight just a subset of the new science that is accessible with LC-TEM through the new multiwindow devices with patterned focusing aides.

| S-EPMC5930397 | biostudies-literature

Complex Nanoparticle Diffusional Motion in Liquid-Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy.

Project description:Liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) is a powerful in situ videography technique that has the potential to allow us to observe solution-phase dynamic processes at the nanoscale, including imaging the diffusion and interaction of nanoparticles. Artefactual effects imposed by the irradiated and confined liquid-cell vessel alter the system from normal "bulk-like" behavior in multiple ways. These artefactual LCTEM effects will leave their fingerprints in the motion behavior of the diffusing objects, which can be revealed through careful analysis of the object-motion trajectories. Improper treatment of the motion data can lead to erroneous descriptions of the LCTEM system's conditions. Here, we advance our anomalous diffusion object-motion analysis (ADOMA) method to extract a detailed description of the liquid-cell system conditions during any LCTEM experiment by applying a multistep analysis of the data and treating the x/y vectors of motion independently and in correlation with each other and with the object's orientation/angle.

| S-EPMC8023318 | biostudies-literature

Liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy for imaging of thermosensitive recombinant polymers.

Project description:Various polymers used in controlled release applications exhibit solution-based thermal responses. Unfortunately, very few characterization and imaging techniques permit resolution of individual polymers during their thermally-triggered phase transitions. Here, we demonstrate the use of temperature-ramp liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) for real-time evaluation of the solution and interfacial behavior of elastinlike polypeptides (ELPs) and their self-assembled nanostructures over a temperature range incorporating their intrinsic lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs). Individual polymers and supramolecular assemblies were discriminated dependent upon solubility states. The recombinant polymers were shown to adsorb to the silicon-nitride chip window from the buffered saline solution and desorb in a temperature-dependent manner. Silk-elastinlike protein block copolymers (SELPs) (composed of repeat peptide motifs of silk and elastin) differed from ELPs in thermal behavior. While both polymers were shown to cluster, only SELPs formed robust amyloid-like fibers upon heating.

| S-EPMC9121634 | biostudies-literature

Picoliter Drop-On-Demand Dispensing for Multiplex Liquid Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy.

Project description:Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) provides a unique insight into the dynamics of nanomaterials in solution. Controlling the addition of multiple solutions to the liquid cell remains a key hurdle in our ability to increase throughput and to study processes dependent on solution mixing including chemical reactions. Here, we report that a piezo dispensing technique allows for mixing of multiple solutions directly within the viewing area. This technique permits deposition of 50 pL droplets of various aqueous solutions onto the liquid cell window, before assembly of the cell in a fully controlled manner. This proof-of-concept study highlights the great potential of picoliter dispensing in combination with LCTEM for observing nanoparticle mixing in the solution phase and the creation of chemical gradients.

| S-EPMC5235328 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data