Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T08:24:34.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2016

Joseph P. Patterson ,
Lucas R. Parent ,
Joshua Cantlon ,
Holger Eickhoff ,
Guido Bared ,
James E. Evans  and
Nathan C. Gianneschi
Joseph P. Patterson
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Lucas R. Parent
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Joshua Cantlon
Affiliation:
SCIENION AG, Volmerstr. 7a, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Holger Eickhoff
Affiliation:
SCIENION AG, Volmerstr. 7a, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Guido Bared
Affiliation:
SCIENION AG, Volmerstr. 7a, 12489 Berlin, Germany
James E. Evans
Affiliation:
Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 3335 Innovation Blvd., Richland, WA 99354, USA
Nathan C. Gianneschi*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
*
*Corresponding author. ngianneschi@ucsd.edu
Get access

Abstract

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.

Keywords

liquid cell transmission electron microscopyTEM sample preparationdispensing organic non-organic solutionsgrid loading
Type
Technique and Instrumentation Development
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , June 2016 , pp. 507 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

a

Contributed equally to this paper.

References

Aerni, H.-R., Cornett, D.S. & Caprioli, R.M. (2006). Automated acoustic matrix deposition for MALDI sample preparation. Anal Chem 78(3), 827–834.Google Scholar
Barnhill, S.A., Bell, N.C., Patterson, J.P., Olds, D.P. & Gianneschi, N.C. (2015). Phase diagrams of polynorbornene amphiphilic block copolymers in solution. Macromolecules 48(4), 1152–1161.Google Scholar
Calvert, P. (2001). Inkjet printing for materials and devices. Chem Mater 13(10), 3299–3305.Google Scholar
Chen, Q., Cho, H., Manthiram, K., Yoshida, M., Ye, X. & Alivisatos, A.P. (2015 a). Interaction potentials of anisotropic nanocrystals from the trajectory sampling of particle motion using in situ liquid phase transmission electron microscopy. ACS Cent Sci 1(1), 33–39.Google Scholar
Chen, X., Li, C. & Cao, H. (2015 b). Recent developments of the in situ wet cell technology for transmission electron microscopies. Nanoscale 7(11), 4811–4819.Google Scholar
Choucair, A. & Eisenberg, A. (2003). Control of amphiphilic block copolymer morphologies using solution conditions. Eur Phys J E Soft Matter 10(1), 37–44.Google Scholar
Cravillon, J., Schröder, C.A., Nayuk, R., Gummel, J., Huber, K. & Wiebcke, M. (2011). Fast nucleation and growth of ZIF-8 nanocrystals monitored by time-resolved in situ small-angle and wide-angle x-ray scattering. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 50(35), 8067–8071.Google Scholar
de Gans, B.-J., Duineveld, P.C. & Schubert, U.S. (2004). Inkjet printing of polymers: State of the art and future developments. Adv Mater 16(3), 203–213.Google Scholar
de, J.N. & Ross, F.M. (2011). Electron microscopy of specimens in liquid. Nat Nanotechnol 6(11), 695–704.Google Scholar
Evans, J.E., Jungjohann, K.L., Browning, N.D. & Arslan, I. (2011). Controlled growth of nanoparticles from solution with in situ liquid transmission electron microscopy. Nano Lett 11(7), 2809–2813.Google Scholar
Li, J., Rossignol, F. & Macdonald, J. (2015). Inkjet printing for biosensor fabrication: Combining chemistry and technology for advanced manufacturing. Lab Chip 15(12), 2538–2558.Google Scholar
Liao, H.-G. & Zheng, H. (2013). Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy study of platinum iron nanocrystal growth and shape evolution. J Am Chem Soc 135(13), 5038–5043.Google Scholar
Liao, H.-G., Zherebetskyy, D., Xin, H., Czarnik, C., Ercius, P., Elmlund, H., Pan, M., Wang, L.-W. & Zheng, H. (2014). Facet development during platinum nanocube growth. Science 345(6199), 916–919.Google Scholar
Mai, Y. & Eisenberg, A. (2012). Self-assembly of block copolymers. Chem Soc Rev 41(18), 5969–5985.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M.H., Aloni, S. & De Yoreo, J.J. (2014). In situ TEM imaging of CaCO3 nucleation reveals coexistence of direct and indirect pathways. Science 345(6201), 1158–1162.Google Scholar
Patterson, J.P., Abellan, P., Denny, M.S., Park, C., Browning, N.D., Cohen, S.M., Evans, J.E. & Gianneschi, N.C. (2015 a). Observing the growth of metal–organic frameworks by in situ liquid cell transmission electron microscopy. J Am Chem Soc 137(23), 7322–7328.Google Scholar
Patterson, J.P., Proetto, M.T. & Gianneschi, N.C. (2015 b). Soft nanomaterials analysed by in situ liquid TEM: Towards high resolution characterisation of nanoparticles in motion. Perspect Sci 6, 106–112.Google Scholar
Proetto, M.T., Rush, A.M., Chien, M.-P., Abellan Baeza, P., Patterson, J.P., Thompson, M.P., Olson, N.H., Moore, C.E., Rheingold, A.L., Andolina, C., Millstone, J., Howell, S.B., Browning, N.D., Evans, J.E. & Gianneschi, N.C. (2014 b). Dynamics of soft nanomaterials captured by transmission electron microscopy in liquid water. J Am Chem Soc 136(4), 1162–1165.Google Scholar
Smeets, P.J.M., Cho, K.R., Kempen, R.G.E., Sommerdijk, N.A.J.M. & De Yoreo, J.J. (2015). Calcium carbonate nucleation driven by ion binding in a biomimetic matrix revealed by in situ electron microscopy. Nat Mater (advance online publication).Google Scholar
Tekin, E., Smith, P.J. & Schubert, U.S. (2008). Ink-jet printing as deposition and patterning tool for polymers and inorganic particles. Soft Matter 4(4), 703–713.Google Scholar
Verch, A., Pfaff, M. & de Jonge, N. (2015). Exceptionally slow movement of gold nanoparticles at a solid/liquid interface investigated by scanning transmission electron microscopy. Langmuir 31(25), 6956–6964.Google Scholar
Williamson, M.J., Tromp, R.M., Vereecken, P.M., Hull, R. & Ross, F.M. (2003). Dynamic microscopy of nanoscale cluster growth at the solid-liquid interface. Nat Mater 2(8), 532–536.Google Scholar
Wixforth, A., Strobl, C., Gauer, C., Toegl, A., Scriba, J. & v Guttenberg, Z. (2004). Acoustic manipulation of small droplets. Anal Bioanal Chem 379(7–8), 982–991.Google Scholar
Woehl, T.J., Evans, J.E., Arslan, I., Ristenpart, W.D. & Browning, N.D. (2012). Direct in situ determination of the mechanisms controlling nanoparticle nucleation and growth. ACS Nano 6(10), 8599–8610.Google Scholar
Woehl, T.J., Park, C., Evans, J.E., Arslan, I., Ristenpart, W.D. & Browning, N.D. (2014). Direct observation of aggregative nanoparticle growth: Kinetic modeling of the size distribution and growth rate. Nano Lett 14(1), 373–378.Google Scholar
Woehl, T.J. & Prozorov, T. (2015). The mechanisms for nanoparticle surface diffusion and chain self-assembly determined from real-time nanoscale kinetics in liquid. J Phys Chem C 119(36), 21261–21269.Google Scholar
Zheng, H., Claridge, S.A., Minor, A.M., Alivisatos, A.P. & Dahmen, U. (2009 a). Nanocrystal diffusion in a liquid thin film observed by in situ transmission electron microscopy. Nano Lett 9(6), 2460–2465.Google Scholar
Zheng, H., Smith, R.K., Jun, Y.-W., Kisielowski, C., Dahmen, U. & Alivisatos, A.P. (2009 b). Observation of single colloidal platinum nanocrystal growth trajectories. Science 324(5932), 1309–1312.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Patterson supplementary material

Movie 1

Download Patterson supplementary material(File)
File 3.8 MB
Supplementary material: File

Patterson supplementary material

Movie 2

Download Patterson supplementary material(File)
File 30.5 MB