Ilett, M., Afzali, M., Abdulkarim, B. et al. (6 more authors) (2024) Studying crystallisation processes using electron microscopy: The importance of sample preparation. Journal of Microscopy. ISSN 0022-2720
Abstract
We present a comparison of common electron microscopy sample preparation methods for studying crystallisation processes from solution using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). We focus on two widely studied inorganic systems: calcium sulphate, gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3). We find significant differences in crystallisation kinetics and polymorph selection between the different sample preparation methods, which indicate that drying and chemical quenching can induce severe artefacts that are capable of masking the true native state of the crystallising solution. Overall, these results highlight the importance of cryogenic (cryo)-quenching crystallising solutions and the use of full cryo-TEM as the most reliable method for studying the early stages of crystallisation.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | crystallisation, electron microscopy, sample preparation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemistry (Leeds) > Inorganic Chemistry (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/R018820/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Apr 2024 10:39 |
Last Modified: | 17 Apr 2024 12:56 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/jmi.13300 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:211308 |