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TEM Grids

Cryo-EM Gold grids

Cryo-EM Gold grids are a high-performance alternative to traditional carbon-on-copper grids. They consist of a gold mesh base supporting a micro-perforated gold foil. 

Graticules is particularly well known for its expertise in manufacturing Cryo-EM gold support grids, an area in which we offer specialist knowledge and manufacturing capability. High quality, ridged and flat support grids suitable for applying micro-perforated gold foil.

Why use Gold instead of Carbon?

  • Reduced Beam-Induced Motion (BIM): This is their primary advantage. When an electron beam hits a traditional carbon grid, the specimen moves slightly, causing "blur" in the first few frames of a movie. All-gold grids reduce this movement by up to 50 times, allowing researchers to recover high-resolution data from the very first frame.
  • Thermal Matching: Unlike carbon and copper, the gold foil and gold mesh have the same thermal expansion coefficient. This prevents the foil from "crinkling" or buckling during plunge-freezing into liquid ethane, keeping the ice layer perfectly flat.
  • Superior Conductivity: Gold is highly conductive at cryogenic temperatures. This helps dissipate electrical charge and heat more efficiently than carbon, reducing radiation damage and sample heating.

  • Biocompatibility & Purity: Gold is chemically inert and non-toxic to biological specimens, reducing the risk of sample contamination or unwanted chemical reactions. 

     

Key Applications

  • High-Resolution Single Particle Analysis (SPA): Essential for determining the 3D structures of small or difficult proteins (like apoferritin) where every angstrom of resolution counts.
  • Cryo-Electron Tomography (Cryo-ET): The mechanical stability of gold grids allows for better alignment of tilt series images.
  • Small Molecule Imaging: Useful for small proteins that are more sensitive to the slight blurring caused by beam-induced motion on standard grids. 
     

Note on Handling: Gold grids are more expensive than copper and require specific plasma cleaning (glow discharge) settings to ensure they are sufficiently hydrophilic for sample wetting.