RT journal article
T1 Direct Imaging of Radiation-Sensitive Organic Polymer-Based Nanocrystals at Sub-Ångström Resolution
A1 Carlino, Elvio
A1 Taurino, Antonietta
A1 Hasa, Dritan
A1 Bučar, Dejan-Krešimir
A1 Polentarutti, Maurizio
A1 Chinchilla Reyes, Lidia Esther
A1 Calvino Gámez, José Juan
A2 Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica y Química Inorgánica
K1 atomic-resolution imaging
K1 HoloTEM
K1 HRTEM
K1 in-line holography
K1 polymers
K1 radiation damage
K1 soft matter
AB Seeing the atomic configuration of single organic nanoparticles at a sub-Å spatial resolution by transmission electron microscopy has been so far prevented by the high sensitivity of soft matter to radiation damage. This difficulty is related to the need to irradiate the particle with a total dose of a few electrons/Å2, not compatible with the electron beam density necessary to search the low-contrast nanoparticle, to control its drift, finely adjust the electron-optical conditions and particle orientation, and finally acquire an effective atomic-resolution image. On the other hand, the capability to study individual pristine nanoparticles, such as proteins, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and polymers, with peculiar sensitivity to the variation in the local structure, defects, and strain, would provide advancements in many fields, including materials science, medicine, biology, and pharmacology. Here, we report the direct sub-ångström-resolution imaging at room temperature of pristine unstained crystalline polymer-based nanoparticles. This result is obtained by combining low-dose in-line electron holography and phase-contrast imaging on state-of-the-art equipment, providing an effective tool for the quantitative sub-ångström imaging of soft matter.
PB Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
SN 2079-4991
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/33666
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/33666
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 13-nov-2026