To familiarize the technique of sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy.
Principle
Electron beams are used in electron microscope to illuminate the specimen and thus creates an image. Since the wavelength o f electrons are 100,000 times shorter than visible light the electron microscopes have greater resolving power. They can achieve a resolution of 0.2nm and magnifications upto 2,000,000 x. Light microscopes show limited resolution than electron microscopes. Light microscopes have a resolution of 200nm and can magnify upto 2000x. Electron microscopes use a beam of electrons to illuminate the specimen instead of light as in light microscopy. The electron microscopes are of the following types:
Transmission electron microscope
scanning electron microscope
scanning tunneling electron microscope
In transmission electron microscope (TEM), the source of illumination is a beam of electrons of very short wavelength, emitted from a tungsten filament at the top of a cylindrical column of about 2 m high. The whole optical system of the microscope is enclosed in vacuum. Air must be evacuated from the column to create a vacuum so that the collision of electrons with air molecules and hence the scattering of electrons are avoided. Along the column, at specific intervals magnetic coils are placed. Just as the light is focused by the glass lenses in a light microscope, these magnetic coils in the electron microscope focus the electron beam. The magnetic coils placed at specific intervals in the column acts as an electromagnetic condenser lense system. The specimen stained with an electron dense material and is placed in the vacuum. The electron beams are passes through the specimen and scattered by the internal structures.
The heated filament emits electrons which are then accelerated by a voltage in the anode. A higher anode voltage will give the electrons a higher speed. Thus the electrons will have a smaller de Broglie wavelength according to the equation, λ = h/mv. The resolving power of a microscope is directly related to the wavelength of the irradiation, which used to form an image. The faster the electrons travel, the shorter their wavelength. As the wavelength is reduced, the resolution is increased. Therefore, the resolution of the microscope is increased if the accelerating voltage of the electron beam is increased.
Transmission electron microscopy involves a high voltage beam of electron emitted by a cathode and formed by magnetic lenses. The beam of electron that has been partially transmitted through the very thin specimen carries information about the structure of the specimen. The spatial variation in this information (the "image") is then magnified by a series of magnetic lenses until it is recorded by hitting a fluorescent screen, photographic plate, or light sensitive sensor like CCD (charge-coupled device) camera. The image detected by the CCD may be displayed in real time on a monitor or computer.
The TEM has the ability ability to determine the positions of atoms within materials which has made an indispensable tool for nano-technologies research and development in many fields, including heterogeneous catalysis and the development of semiconductor devices for photonics and electronics. In the life sciences, it is still mainly the specimen preparation which limits the resolution of what we can see in the electron microscope, rather than the microscope itself.
There are four parts for a transmission electron microscope:
• Electron source
• Electromagnetic lens system
• Sample holder
• Imaging system
The electron source is an electron gun which consists of a tungsten filament. This filament emits electrons when it is heated. The beam of electrons are the focused on the specimen by the condenser which consists of electromagnets called magnetic lenses. The sample holder consists of a mechanical arm which holds the specimen. The imaging system also consists of electromagnetic lens system and a screen which has a phosphorescent plate. The plate glows when hit by the electrons after passing through the specimen.
ELECTRON GUN
The function of an electron gun is to emit an intense beam of electrons into the vacuum which accelerates the between the cathode and the anode. There are two main types of electron gun: thermionic electron gun and field emission gun. The metals contain free electrons. The valence are free electrons electrons, which are loosely bound in the nucleus. Those electrons cannot escape from the metal surface . The positively charged nucleus will try to pull back the free electrons when they try to escape from the surface. Hence the electrons have to overcome the potential barrier in order to escape from the surface of the metals. The energy required to overcome this potential barrier is called work function.
Work function, φ, is the minimum energy in electron volts required to remove an electron from the metal surface. If the electrons in metals are to be emitted from the cathode they have to overcome the work function.
Electrons are emitted from a metal by two methods:
Thermionic emission: In this method the electrons are emitted from the metals by heating them.
Field emission: In this method the electrons are emitted from metals, under strong electric fields.
Thermionic electron gun
The filament is made from a high melting point material or low work function, in order to emit many electrons. Tungsten filament is most commonly used in thermionic electron gun. Tungsten wire used as thermionic cathodes are of 0.1-0.2mm in diameter bent like a hairpin and soldered on contacts. The wire is heated by a current of a few amperes.
Field emission electron gun
In fleld emission electron gun, a very strong electric field is used to extract electrons from a metal filament. Temperatures are lower than that needed for thermionic emission. This gives much higher source brightness than thermionic guns, but requires a very good vacuum.
SAMPLE PREPARATION
Sample preparation is important for electron microscopy. There are three main steps for sample preparation: Processing, embedding and polymerization.
Processing
This includes: fixation, rinsing, post fixation, dehydration and infiltration.
1) Fixation
This is done to preserve the sample and to prevent further deterioration so that it appears as close as possible to the living state, although it is dead now. It stabilizes the cell structure. There is minimum alteration to cell morphology and volume. Glutaraldehyde is often used as the fixative in TEM. As a result of glutaraldehyde fixation the protein molecules are covalently cross linked to their neighbors.
2) Rinsing
The samples should be washed with a buffer to maintain the pH. For this purpose, sodium cacodylate buffer is often used which has an effective buffering range of 5.1-7.4. The sodium cacodylate buffer thus prevents excess acidity which may result from tissue fixation during microscopy.
3) Post fixation
A secondary fixation with osmium tetroxide (OsO4), which is to increase the stability and contrast of fine structure. OsO4 binds phospholipid head regions, which creating contrast with the neighbouring protoplasm (cytoplasm). OsO4 helps in the stabilization of many proteins by transforming them into gels without destroying the structural features. Tissue proteins, which are stabilized by OsO4 and does not coagulated by alcohols during dehydration.
For imaging electrons scatterring ,heavy metals like uranium and lead are used and thus give contrast between different structures. Thus we add more electron density to the internal structures.
4) Dehydration
The water content in the tissue sample should be replaced with an organic solvent since the epoxy resin used in infiltration and embedding step are not miscible with water.
5) Infiltration
Epoxy resin is used to infiltrate the cells. It penetrates the cells and fills the space to give hard plastic material which will tolerate the pressure of cutting.
6) Embedding:
After processing the next step is embedding. This is done using flat molds.
7) Polymerization
Next is polymerization step in which the resin is allowed to set overnight at a temperature of 60 degree in an oven.
8) Sectioning
The specimen must be cut into very thin sections for electron microscopy so that the electrons are semitransparent to electrons. These sections are cut on an ultramicrotome which is a device with a glass or diamond knife. For best resolution the sections must be 30 to 60 nm.
The resin block can be made ready for the sectioning by trimming it at the tip with a razor blade or black trimmer so that the smallest cutting face is available. Fix the block to a microtome and cut the sections. Sections float onto a surface of liquid held in trough and remain together in a form of ribbon. Freshly distilled water is generally used to fill the trough. These sections are then collected onto a copper grid and viewed under the microscope.
Scanning Electron Microscope
SEM is used to examine the surfaces of cells and microorganisms and thus give contrast between different structures. SEM also uses a beam of electrons to create an image. It uses the electrons emitted by the surface of the specimen to produce the image. So the surface view of the specimen is obtained.
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