High-Contrast Observation of Unstained Proteins and Viruses by Scanning Electron Microscopy

Toshihiko Ogura

PLOS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, issue 10, 1-7

Abstract: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is an important tool for the nanometre-scale analysis of the various samples. Imaging of biological specimens can be difficult for two reasons: (1) Samples must often be left unstained to observe detail of the biological structures; however, lack of staining significantly decreases image contrast. (2) Samples are prone to serious radiation damage from electron beam. Herein we report a novel method for sample preparation involving placement on a new metal-coated insulator film. This method enables obtaining high-contrast images from unstained proteins and viruses by scanning electron microscopy with minimal electron radiation damage. These images are similar to those obtained by transmission electron microscopy. In addition, the method can be easily used to observe specimens of proteins, viruses and other organic samples by using SEM.

Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0046904 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 46904&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0046904

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046904

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().