Journal
MICROSCOPY RESEARCH AND TECHNIQUE
Volume 77, Issue 10, Pages 754-772Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/jemt.22397
Keywords
freeze fracture; high-pressure freezing; CEMOVIS; thermotropic; lyotropic
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Funding
- NSF [DMR-1104850, DMR-1121288]
- EU project BIND [216025]
- National Science Foundation of China [61172011]
- Mager Scientific Inc.
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1307674] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Liquid crystals (LCs) represent a challenging group of materials for direct transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies due to the complications in specimen preparation and the severe radiation damage. In this paper, we summarize a series of specimen preparation methods, including thin film and cryo-sectioning approaches, as a comprehensive toolset enabling high-resolution direct cryo-TEM observation of a broad range of LCs. We also present comparative analysis using cryo-TEM and replica freeze-fracture TEM on both thermotropic and lyotropic LCs. In addition to the revisits of previous practices, some new concepts are introduced, e.g., suspended thermotropic LC thin films, combined high-pressure freezing and cryo-sectioning of lyotropic LCs, and the complementary applications of direct TEM and indirect replica TEM techniques. The significance of subnanometer resolution cryo-TEM observation is demonstrated in a few important issues in LC studies, including providing direct evidences for the existence of nanoscale smectic domains in nematic bent-core thermotropic LCs, comprehensive understanding of the twist-bend nematic phase, and probing the packing of columnar aggregates in lyotropic chromonic LCs. Direct TEM observation opens ways to a variety of TEM techniques, suggesting that TEM (replica, cryo, and in situ techniques), in general, may be a promising part of the solution to the lack of effective structural probe at the molecular scale in LC studies. Microsc. Res. Tech. 77:754-772, 2014. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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