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Investigation of Nanoparticles in Biological Objects by Electron Microscopy Techniques

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Intracellular Delivery II

Part of the book series: Fundamental Biomedical Technologies ((FBMT,volume 7))

Abstract

Electron microscopy (EM) is the most used technique for materials characterisation. Both methods—scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with high resolution mode have become extensively used especially in nanomaterials research. This chapter provides a summary of modern EM techniques used for the analysis of nanoparticles. Regarding a broad spectrum of various nanomaterials being prepared to date or just naturally occurring in the environment, several case studies focusing on nanoparticles analysis by EM methods are introduced. Modified EM methods such as cryo techniques and environmental SEM (ESEM) are also mentioned because of their importance and great potential in research areas combining nanotechnology and biology.

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Abbreviations

AEMs:

Analytical electron microscopes

BF:

Bright field

BSE:

Back-scattered electron

BSA:

Bovine serum albumin

CCD:

Charge-coupled device

Cryo-ET:

Cryogenic electron tomography

Cryo-SEM:

Cryogenic scanning electron microscopy

Cryo-TEM:

Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy

DF:

Dark field

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

EELS:

Electron energy-loss spectrometry

EDS:

Energy dispersive spectrometer

EDX:

Energy dispersive X-ray analysis

EM:

Electron microscopy

ET:

Electron tomography

ESEM:

Environmental scanning electron microscopy

FIB:

Focused ion beam

FEG:

Field emission gun

HAADF:

High-angle angular dark field

MTB:

Magnetotactic bacteria

SE:

Secondary electrons

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

SEMs:

Scanning electron microscopes

SWNT:

Single walled carbon nanotubes

TEM:

Transmission electron microscopy

TEMs:

Transmission electron microscopes

WDS:

Wavelength dispersive spectrometer

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Acknowledgments

This paper has been elaborated from the framework of the Nanotechnologythe basis for international cooperation Project, reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0074 supported by the Operational Programme “Education for competitiveness” funded by the Structural Funds of the European Union and the state budget of the Czech Republic. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the SGS project No. SP2013/48. The authors also would like to thank Jay Davis for valuable language corrections.

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Correspondence to Gabriela Kratošová .

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Kratošová, G., Dědková, K., Vávra, I., Čiampor, F. (2014). Investigation of Nanoparticles in Biological Objects by Electron Microscopy Techniques. In: Prokop, A., Iwasaki, Y., Harada, A. (eds) Intracellular Delivery II. Fundamental Biomedical Technologies, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8896-0_8

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