EMDep: a web-based system for the deposition and validation of high-resolution electron microscopy macromolecular structural information

2003 ◽  
Vol 144 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 228-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Henrick ◽  
R Newman ◽  
M Tagari ◽  
M Chagoyen
Author(s):  
J.M. Howe ◽  
R. Gronsky

The technique of high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) is invaluable to the materials scientist because it allows examination of microstructural features at levels of resolution that are unobtainable by most other methods. Although the structural information which can be determined by HREM and accompanying image simulations has been well documented in the literature, there have only been a few cases where this technique has been used to reveal the chemistry of individual columns or planes of atoms, as occur in segregated and ordered materials.


Author(s):  
J. R. FRYER

It is shown that it is possible to obtain structural information from small (<100 nm) phthalocyanine crystals by using crystallographic direct phasing methods applied to electron diffraction data. This technique is both quantitative and does not suffer from the difficulties associated with high-resolution electron microscopy. Structural information has been obtained from both tetra- and octa chloro-copper phthalocyanines, and the results compared with the hydrogenated and perchloro members of the series.


Author(s):  
J.C.H. Spence

Any attempt to study the relationship between the electronic and atomic struc ture of isolated defects in semiconductors by high resolution electron microscopy must deal with the following difficulties: (i) The limited point reso lution of modern TEM instruments, which has fallen by about 1Å from 3.8Å to 2.8Å (with tilt) over the last decade. This is still not sufficient to resolve the individual atomic columns in any semiconductor. (ii) The fundamental difficulties in obtaining both high spatial resolution structural information and high energy resolution spectroscopic data from the same, isolated, defect. (iii) The considerable difficulties in extracting chemical, or atomic number information from electron scattering and imaging experiments with high spatial resolution. Among other problems, the separation of composition variation effects from those of thickness is an important problem. Some of our recent approaches to these problems are outlined below.


Author(s):  
W. H. Wu ◽  
R. M. Glaeser

Spirillum serpens possesses a surface layer protein which exhibits a regular hexagonal packing of the morphological subunits. A morphological model of the structure of the protein has been proposed at a resolution of about 25 Å, in which the morphological unit might be described as having the appearance of a flared-out, hollow cylinder with six ÅspokesÅ at the flared end. In order to understand the detailed association of the macromolecules, it is necessary to do a high resolution structural analysis. Large, single layered arrays of the surface layer protein have been obtained for this purpose by means of extensive heating in high CaCl2, a procedure derived from that of Buckmire and Murray. Low dose, low temperature electron microscopy has been applied to the large arrays.As a first step, the samples were negatively stained with neutralized phosphotungstic acid, and the specimens were imaged at 40,000 magnification by use of a high resolution cold stage on a JE0L 100B. Low dose images were recorded with exposures of 7-9 electrons/Å2. The micrographs obtained (Fig. 1) were examined by use of optical diffraction (Fig. 2) to tell what areas were especially well ordered.


Author(s):  
Robert A. Grant ◽  
Laura L. Degn ◽  
Wah Chiu ◽  
John Robinson

Proteolytic digestion of the immunoglobulin IgG with papain cleaves the molecule into an antigen binding fragment, Fab, and a compliment binding fragment, Fc. Structures of intact immunoglobulin, Fab and Fc from various sources have been solved by X-ray crystallography. Rabbit Fc can be crystallized as thin platelets suitable for high resolution electron microscopy. The structure of rabbit Fc can be expected to be similar to the known structure of human Fc, making it an ideal specimen for comparing the X-ray and electron crystallographic techniques and for the application of the molecular replacement technique to electron crystallography. Thin protein crystals embedded in ice diffract to high resolution. A low resolution image of a frozen, hydrated crystal can be expected to have a better contrast than a glucose embedded crystal due to the larger density difference between protein and ice compared to protein and glucose. For these reasons we are using an ice embedding technique to prepare the rabbit Fc crystals for molecular structure analysis by electron microscopy.


Author(s):  
J. C. Wheatley ◽  
J. M. Cowley

Rare-earth phosphates are of particular interest because of their catalytic properties associated with the hydrolysis of many aromatic chlorides in the petroleum industry. Lanthanum phosphates (LaPO4) which have been doped with small amounts of copper have shown increased catalytic activity (1). However the physical and chemical characteristics of the samples leading to good catalytic activity are not known.Many catalysts are amorphous and thus do not easily lend themselves to methods of investigation which would include electron microscopy. However, the LaPO4, crystals are quite suitable samples for high resolution techniques.The samples used were obtained from William L. Kehl of Gulf Research and Development Company. The electron microscopy was carried out on a JEOL JEM-100B which had been modified for high resolution microscopy (2). Standard high resolution techniques were employed. Three different sample types were observed: 669A-1-5-7 (poor catalyst), H-L-2 (good catalyst) and 27-011 (good catalyst).


Author(s):  
N. Bonnet ◽  
M. Troyon ◽  
P. Gallion

Two main problems in high resolution electron microscopy are first, the existence of gaps in the transfer function, and then the difficulty to find complex amplitude of the diffracted wawe from registered intensity. The solution of this second problem is in most cases only intended by the realization of several micrographs in different conditions (defocusing distance, illuminating angle, complementary objective apertures…) which can lead to severe problems of contamination or radiation damage for certain specimens.Fraunhofer holography can in principle solve both problems stated above (1,2). The microscope objective is strongly defocused (far-field region) so that the two diffracted beams do not interfere. The ideal transfer function after reconstruction is then unity and the twin image do not overlap on the reconstructed one.We show some applications of the method and results of preliminary tests.Possible application to the study of cavitiesSmall voids (or gas-filled bubbles) created by irradiation in crystalline materials can be observed near the Scherzer focus, but it is then difficult to extract other informations than the approximated size.


Author(s):  
Z.M. Wang ◽  
J.P. Zhang

High resolution electron microscopy reveals that antiphase domain boundaries in β-Ni3Nb have a hexagonal unit cell with lattice parameters ah=aβ and ch=bβ, where aβ and bβ are of the orthogonal β matrix. (See Figure 1.) Some of these boundaries can creep “upstairs” leaving an incoherent area, as shown in region P. When the stepped boundaries meet each other, they do not lose their own character. Our consideration in this work is to estimate the influnce of the natural misfit δ{(ab-aβ)/aβ≠0}. Defining the displacement field at the boundary as a phase modulation Φ(x), following the Frenkel-Kontorova model [2], we consider the boundary area to be made up of a two unit chain, the upper portion of which can move and the lower portion of the β matrix type, assumed to be fixed. (See the schematic pattern in Figure 2(a)).


Author(s):  
J.L. Batstone ◽  
J.M. Gibson ◽  
Alice.E. White ◽  
K.T. Short

High resolution electron microscopy (HREM) is a powerful tool for the determination of interface atomic structure. With the previous generation of HREM's of point-to-point resolution (rpp) >2.5Å, imaging of semiconductors in only <110> directions was possible. Useful imaging of other important zone axes became available with the advent of high voltage, high resolution microscopes with rpp <1.8Å, leading to a study of the NiSi2 interface. More recently, it was shown that images in <100>, <111> and <112> directions are easily obtainable from Si in the new medium voltage electron microscopes. We report here the examination of the important Si/Si02 interface with the use of a JEOL 4000EX HREM with rpp <1.8Å, in a <100> orientation. This represents a true structural image of this interface.


Author(s):  
M. José-Yacamán

Electron microscopy is a fundamental tool in materials characterization. In the case of nanostructured materials we are looking for features with a size in the nanometer range. Therefore often the conventional TEM techniques are not enough for characterization of nanophases. High Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM), is a key technique in order to characterize those materials with a resolution of ~ 1.7A. High resolution studies of metallic nanostructured materials has been also reported in the literature. It is concluded that boundaries in nanophase materials are similar in structure to the regular grain boundaries. That work therefore did not confirm the early hipothesis on the field that grain boundaries in nanostructured materials have a special behavior. We will show in this paper that by a combination of HREM image processing, and image calculations, it is possible to prove that small particles and coalesced grains have a significant surface roughness, as well as large internal strain.


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