Cryogenic TEM imaging of artificial light harvesting complexes outside equilibrium.

ABSTRACT: The energy transport in natural light-harvesting complexes can be explored in laboratory conditions via self-assembled supramolecular structures. One such structure arises from the amphiphilic dye C8S3 molecules, which self-assemble in an aqueous medium to a double-wall cylindrical nanotube reminiscent of natural light-harvesting complexes found in green sulphur bacteria. In this paper, we report a way to investigate the structure of inner nanotubes (NTs) alone by dissolving the outer NTs in a microfluidic setting. The resulting thermodynamically unstable system was rapidly frozen, preventing the reassembly of the outer NT from the dissolved molecules, and imaged using cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). The experimental cryo-TEM images and the molecular structure were c

SUBMITTER: Krishnaswamy SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8975939 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature