Synthesis and electron microscopic analysis of the self-assembly of polymer and ferritin core-shell structures

✍ Scribed by Laying Wu; Tao Li; Douglas Blom; Jibin Zhao; Soumitra Ghoshroy; Qian Wang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 475 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1059-910X
• DOI: 10.1002/jemt.20891

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Self‐assembly of poly(4‐vinylpyridine) (P4VP) and ferritin produced a spherical core‐shell structure, which was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In particular, for better understanding, the organization of such core‐shell nanostructures, an optimal protocol for preparation of TEM thin sectioning of ferritin‐P4VP composites, was developed. It entails fixing the ferritin‐P4VP complex with 2.5% glutaraldehyde and infiltrating it with a mixture of acetone/resin while omitting the OsO~4~ postfixation and ethanol dehydration steps of the conventional protocol. Using this method, a round‐shaped thin section structure with unevenly distributed dark and white components was observed. The dark component from the thin section structure was determined to contain ferritin by energy‐filtered TEM imaging and iron element mapping, whereas the white part was identified as P4VP by its energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDS) spectrum. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.