Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:05:09.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access

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

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Briegel, A., Ding, H.J., Li, Z., Werner, J., Gitai, Z., Dias, D.P., Jensen, R.B. & Jensen, G. (2008). Location and architecture of the Caulobacter crescentus chemoreceptor array. Mol Microbiol 69, 30–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brüggeller, P. & Mayer, E. (1980). Complete vitrification in pure liquid water and dilute aqueous solutions. Nature 288, 569–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffith, C.A., Penteado, P., Rannou, P., Brown, R., Boudon, V., Baines, K.H., Clark, R., Drossart, P., Buratti, B., Nicholson, P., McKay, C.P., Coustenis, A., Negrao, A. & Jaumann, R. (2006). Evidence for a polar ethane cloud on Titan. Science 313, 1620–1622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed