Graphene as a transparent conductive support for studying biological molecules by transmission electron microscopy

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of graphene as a robust, transparent support for high-contrast imaging of biological molecules in TEM without staining, enabling improved visualization of sub-micrometer biological specimens.

Contribution

It introduces a simple method to produce free-standing graphene membranes suitable for TEM support, enhancing imaging quality of biological molecules.

Findings

Graphene supports enable high-contrast TEM imaging of biological molecules.

Biological specimens can be observed without staining using graphene supports.

The method produces durable, sub-micrometer membranes for microscopy.

Abstract

We demonstrate the application of graphene as a support for imaging individual biological molecules in transmission electron microscope (TEM). A simple procedure to produce free-standing graphene membranes has been designed. Such membranes are extremely robust and can support practically any sub-micrometer object. Tobacco mosaic virus has been deposited on graphene samples and observed in a TEM. High contrast has been achieved even though no staining has been applied.