3D Analysis of Ordered Porous Polymeric Particles using Complementary Electron Microscopy Methods
Type
ArticleAuthors
Alvarez, JuanSaudino, Giovanni
Musteata, Valentina-Elena
Madhavan, Poornima

Genovese, Alessandro
Behzad, Ali Reza
Sougrat, Rachid
Boi, Cristiana
Peinemann, Klaus-Viktor

Nunes, Suzana Pereira

KAUST Department
Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Research CenterBiological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Chemical Engineering Program
Electron Microscopy
Environmental Science and Engineering Program
Nanostructured Polymeric Membrane Lab
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1057-01-01Date
2019-09-27Online Publication Date
2019-09-27Print Publication Date
2019-12Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/656929
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Highly porous particles with internal triply periodic minimal surfaces were investigated for sorption of proteins. The visualization of the complex ordered morphology requires complementary advanced methods of electron microscopy for 3D imaging, instead of a simple 2D projection: transmission electron microscopy (TEM) tomography, slice-and-view focused ion beam (FIB) and serial block face (SBF) scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The capability of each method of 3D image reconstruction was demonstrated and their potential of application to other synthetic polymeric systems was discussed. TEM has high resolution for details even smaller than 1 nm, but the imaged volume is relatively restricted (2.5 μm)3. The samples are pre-sliced in an ultramicrotome. FIB and SBF are coupled to a SEM. The sample sectioning is done in situ, respectively by an ion beam or an ultramicrotome, SBF, a method so far mostly applied only to biological systems, was particularly highly informative to reproduce the ordered morphology of block copolymer particles with 32-54 nm nanopores and sampling volume (20 μm)3.Citation
Alvarez, J., Saudino, G., Musteata, V., Madhavan, P., Genovese, A., Behzad, A. R., … Nunes, S. P. (2019). 3D Analysis of Ordered Porous Polymeric Particles using Complementary Electron Microscopy Methods. Scientific Reports, 9(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-019-50338-2Sponsors
The work was supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), base line funding BAS/1/1057-01-01. The authors thank LNLS (Brazil) for access to the SAXS1 beamline, particularly F. Meneau.Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCJournal
Scientific ReportsAdditional Links
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50338-2ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/s41598-019-50338-2