MRI: Acquisition of a field emission scanning electron microscope with cryo transfer and EDS systems

MRI：购买带有低温传输和 EDS 系统的场发射扫描电子显微镜

• 批准号: 1126100
• 负责人: Marie Cantino
• 金额: $ 59.76万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1126100&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; field; emission; scanning

This award provides funds to purchase a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) with a cryo transfer stage and an energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) system for the Electron Microscopy Laboratory (EM Lab), a multi-user facility at the main campus of the University of Connecticut. The new instrument replaces a heavily used 15-year old FESEM, thus ensuring continued FESEM availability and providing new capabilities to enhance and expand both research and research training at the University of Connecticut. The FESEM provides images of a variety of materials at resolutions previously unattainable in this facility. A charge compensation system minimizes image degradation in poorly conducting samples. A backscatter detector and EDS system provide compositional information and the ability to detect immunogold particles conjugated to macromolecules within cells and tissues. The cryo transfer system allows samples to be rapidly frozen, transferred to the microscope and viewed at high resolution in the fully hydrated state, with minimal contamination by water or hydrocarbons. Controlled sublimation of water at the surface reveals surface morphology without major structural change and identifies the location of water in the sample. These features are especially beneficial for study of highly hydrated samples such as plant tissues or biofilms, which tend to shrink and collapse with removal of water. The cryo transfer system also allows samples to be fractured and/or coated after freezing and prior to transfer and viewing. The major users of the new instrumentation represent a wide range of disciplines from evolutionary biology to bioengineering. The group includes both senior investigators with well-established programs and junior faculty members developing their careers. One senior faculty member is from Connecticut College, a predominantly undergraduate institution with no FESEM instrumentation. The projects these investigators are carrying out include studies of water transport and conservation in woody plants and bryophytes, systematics of tapeworms in elasmobranchs, morphology of green algae, ecology of desert biotic crusts, structure of porous metal oxide nanoparticles, molecular biology and physiology of plant cell walls, ecology and biogeography of freshwater chrysophytes, nucleation of minerals in marine biofilms, and biomechanics and microstructure of heart valves. This system provides state-of-the-art electron imaging capabilities to a highly active and multidisciplinary group of faculty and students, enhancing both research and research training. Their research is helping to identify and classify new species of tapeworms found around the world. It is characterizing microbe-mineral interactions at the interface between the bio- and lithospheres that are critical in the search of the origin of life, life on other planets, the characterization of natural reservoir (porosity and permeability), and carbon sequestration. Studies of a variety of plant species are contributing to understanding of the ability of land plants to withstand desiccation and transport water and of the composition and function of the plant cell walls. Structural data on chrysophytes and diatomes found in Arctic lake systems of the early Cenozoic are providing an unprecedented opportunity to understand how Arctic ecosystems may change under future greenhouse climates. Structural and compositional studies of porous oxide catelysts and octahedral molecular seive manganese oxides are potentially useful for oil spills and remediation of pollutants. Studies of the fibrous structure of heart valves are providing data to help generate computational models of how human heart valves respond to minimally invasive heart valve repair and replacement. The purchased equipment is helping to drive new research initiatives and promote collaborative research within this group of investigators and beyond.

该奖项提供资金购买场发射扫描电子显微镜（FESEM）与低温转移阶段和能量色散X射线光谱（EDS）系统的电子显微镜实验室（EM实验室），在康涅狄格大学的主校区的多用户设施。新仪器取代了使用了15年的FESEM，从而确保了FESEM的持续可用性，并提供了新的能力，以加强和扩大康涅狄格大学的研究和研究培训。FESEM提供了各种材料的图像，其分辨率在该设施中以前无法达到。电荷补偿系统最大限度地减少了不良导电样品中的图像退化。反向散射检测器和EDS系统提供成分信息和检测与细胞和组织内的大分子缀合的免疫金颗粒的能力。低温传输系统允许样品快速冷冻，转移到显微镜上，并在完全水合状态下以高分辨率观察，水或碳氢化合物的污染最小。水在表面的受控升华揭示了没有主要结构变化的表面形态，并确定了水在样品中的位置。这些特征对于研究高度水合的样品（例如植物组织或生物膜）特别有益，这些样品往往会随着水分的去除而收缩和塌陷。低温转移系统还允许样品在冷冻后和转移和观察前破碎和/或涂覆。新仪器的主要用户代表了从进化生物学到生物工程的广泛学科。该小组包括拥有完善项目的高级研究员和正在发展职业生涯的初级教师。 一位高级教师来自康涅狄格学院，这是一所没有FESEM仪器的主要本科院校。这些研究人员正在开展的项目包括木本植物和苔藓植物中的水分运输和保护研究、板鳃类中绦虫的系统学研究、绿色藻类的形态学研究、沙漠生物结皮的生态学研究、多孔金属氧化物纳米颗粒的结构研究、植物细胞壁的分子生物学和生理学研究、淡水金藻的生态学和生态地理学研究、海洋生物膜中矿物质的成核研究、以及心脏瓣膜的生物力学和微观结构。该系统为高度活跃和多学科的教师和学生提供了最先进的电子成像能力，增强了研究和研究培训。他们的研究正在帮助识别和分类世界各地发现的绦虫新物种。它表征了生物和岩石圈之间界面处的微生物-矿物相互作用，这对于寻找生命起源，其他行星上的生命，天然储层（孔隙度和渗透性）的表征以及碳封存至关重要。对各种植物物种的研究有助于了解陆地植物抵抗干燥和运输水分的能力以及植物细胞壁的组成和功能。 在新生代早期的北极湖泊系统中发现的金藻和绿藻的结构数据为了解北极生态系统在未来温室气候下可能发生的变化提供了前所未有的机会。多孔氧化物催化剂和八面体分子筛锰氧化物的结构和组成研究在溢油和污染物治理方面具有潜在的应用价值。对心脏瓣膜纤维结构的研究正在提供数据，以帮助生成人类心脏瓣膜如何响应微创心脏瓣膜修复和置换的计算模型。购买的设备有助于推动新的研究计划，并促进这组研究人员内外的合作研究。