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An Improved Cryogen for Plunge Freezing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2008

William F. Tivol ,
Ariane Briegel  and
Grant J. Jensen
William F. Tivol*
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Broad Center, MC 114-96, 1201 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Ariane Briegel
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Broad Center, MC 114-96, 1201 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Grant J. Jensen
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Broad Center, MC 114-96, 1201 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: tivol@caltech.edu
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Abstract

The use of an alkane mixture that remains liquid at 77 K to freeze specimens has advantages over the use of a pure alkane that is solid at 77 K. It was found that a mixture of methane and ethane did not give a cooling rate adequate to produce vitreous ice, but a mixture of propane and ethane did result in vitreous ice. Furthermore, the latter mixture produced less damage to specimens mounted on a very thin, fragile holey carbon substrate.

Keywords

cryogenplunge freezingelectron cryomicroscopyice embeddingtransmission electron microscopyspecimen preparation
Type
Biological Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 14 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 375 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2008

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References

REFERENCES

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