Structural engineering of graphene for high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy

Abstract

The revolutionary improvement of hardware and algorithm in cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has made it a routine method to obtain structures of macromolecules at near-atomic resolution. Nevertheless, this technique still faces many challenges. The structure-solving efficiency of cryo-EM can be significantly reduced by the biomolecules' denaturation on the air–water interfaces, the preferred orientation, strong background noise from supporting films and particle motion, and so forth. To overcome these problems, nanomaterials with ultrahigh electronic conductivity and ultrathin thickness are explored as promising cryo-EM specimen supporting films. Herein, we summarize the structural engineering of graphene, for example, surface and interface modification, as supporting films for grids and the application on high-resolution cryo-EM and discuss potential future perspectives.