Three-dimensional electron ptychography of organic-inorganic hybrid nanostructures

Zhiyuan Ding; Si Gao; Weina Fang; Chen Huang; Liqi Zhou; Xudong Pei; Xiaoguo Liu; Xiaoqing Pan; Chunhai Fan; Angus I Kirkland; Peng Wang

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-32548-x

Three-dimensional electron ptychography of organic-inorganic hybrid nanostructures

Nat Commun. 2022 Aug 15;13(1):4787. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32548-x.

Authors

Zhiyuan Ding^#^{1

2}, Si Gao^#^{1

3}, Weina Fang⁴, Chen Huang^{2

5}, Liqi Zhou¹, Xudong Pei¹, Xiaoguo Liu⁶, Xiaoqing Pan⁷, Chunhai Fan⁶, Angus I Kirkland^{2

5

8}, Peng Wang^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China.
² Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PH, UK.
³ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
⁴ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Dongchuan Road 500, Shanghai, 200241, China.
⁵ The Rosalind Franklin Institute, Harwell Campus, Didcot, OX11 0FA, UK.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules and National Center for Translational Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, 92697, CA, USA.
⁸ Electron Physical Sciences Imaging Centre, Diamond Light Source Ltd., Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE, UK.
⁹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China. peng.wang.3@warwick.ac.uk.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. peng.wang.3@warwick.ac.uk.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Three dimensional scaffolded DNA origami with inorganic nanoparticles has been used to create tailored multidimensional nanostructures. However, the image contrast of DNA is poorer than those of the heavy nanoparticles in conventional transmission electron microscopy at high defocus so that the biological and non-biological components in 3D scaffolds cannot be simultaneously resolved using tomography of samples in a native state. We demonstrate the use of electron ptychography to recover high contrast phase information from all components in a DNA origami scaffold without staining. We further quantitatively evaluate the enhancement of contrast in comparison with conventional transmission electron microscopy. In addition, We show that for ptychography post-reconstruction focusing simplifies the workflow and reduces electron dose and beam damage.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

DNA / chemistry
Electrons*
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
Nanostructures* / chemistry

Substances

DNA