Development of an in-situ cryo high resolution instrument for multimodal analysis in nano-toxicology


Development of an in-situ cryo high resolution instrument for multimodal analysis in nano-toxicology

de Castro, O.; Lovric, J.; Barrahma, R.; Bouton, O.; Serralta, E.; Klingner, N.; Hlawacek, G.; Gnauck, P.; Duarte Pinto, S.; Lucas, F.; Wirtz, T.

Nowadays many consumer products contain nanoparticles in order for them to have certain desired properties. However, with the addition of nanoparticles these products can have potentially unknown health risks to humans, animal and plant species, and to the environment in general. The nanomaterial risk identification involves their physico-chemical characterization currently employing a variety of techniques and separate instruments. This makes the characterization an expensive and time-consuming process.
In the framework of the Horizon2020 project npSCOPE, we are developing a new integrated instrument for the characterization of nanoparticles. The aim is to improve the efficiency of the nanomaterial characterization workflow by integrating several techniques in one single instrument. The npSCOPE instrument is equipped with the ultra-high resolution Gas Field Ion Source (GFIS) technology [1] allowing the sample to be irradiated with very finely focused He+ and Ne+ ion beams at the nano-scale. Furthermore, the instrument incorporates detectors for secondary electron imaging, a secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) for chemical analysis [2-4] and a detector allowing the detection of transmitted ions/atoms to obtain in-situ structural/3D visualisation data. The instrument will allow the characterization of nanoparticles in their native state as well as embedded in complex matrices (e.g. biological tissue, liquid, etc.). A further key feature of the instrument is cryo-capability, including a 5 axis cryo-stage, in order to perform analyses of biological samples in a frozen-hydrated state and thus avoid artefacts caused by classical sample preparation (e.g. chemical fixation) used for HV or UHV imaging of biological specimens at room temperature.
Here, we will present the instrument, report on the instrument’s performance and discuss the correlative microscopy capabilities. We will present first results obtained with the npSCOPE instrument on different kinds of nano-particle samples relevant in the field of nano-toxicology.
Beside analyses of nano-toxicological samples we are planning to use this instrument in different material science fields as well as other life science domains that require high resolution imaging in cryo-conditions (e.g. lipid research) [5].

Keywords: Helium Ion Microscopy; Scanning transmission helium ion microscopy; secondary ion mass spectrometry; cryo microscopy

Related publications

  • Lecture (Conference)
    MRS Fall Meeting 2019, 01.-06.12.2019, Boston, United States of America

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-29640
Publ.-Id: 29640