Hydrophilic, Clean Graphene for Cell Culture and Cryo-EM Imaging

Jincan Zhang; Kaicheng Jia; Yongfeng Huang; Yanan Wang; Nan Liu; Yanan Chen; Xiaoting Liu; Xiaojun Liu; Yeshu Zhu; Liming Zheng; Heng Chen; Fushun Liang; Mengqi Zhang; Xiaojie Duan; Hongwei Wang; Li Lin; Hailin Peng; Zhongfan Liu

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03344

Hydrophilic, Clean Graphene for Cell Culture and Cryo-EM Imaging

Nano Lett. 2021 Nov 24;21(22):9587-9593. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03344. Epub 2021 Nov 4.

Authors

Jincan Zhang^{1

2

3

4}, Kaicheng Jia^{1

2}, Yongfeng Huang^{5

6}, Yanan Wang^{5

6}, Nan Liu⁷, Yanan Chen⁷, Xiaoting Liu^{1

2

3}, Xiaojun Liu⁸, Yeshu Zhu^{1

2

3}, Liming Zheng^{1

2}, Heng Chen^{1

2}, Fushun Liang^{1

2

3}, Mengqi Zhang², Xiaojie Duan⁸, Hongwei Wang⁷, Li Lin⁹, Hailin Peng^{1

2}, Zhongfan Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
² Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing 100095, P. R. China.
³ Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
⁴ Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, U.K.
⁵ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, P. R. China.
⁶ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
⁷ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences and Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China.
⁸ College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
⁹ Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 119077, Singapore.

PMID: 34734718
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03344

Abstract

The wettability of graphene is critical for numerous applications but is very sensitive to its surface cleanness. Herein, by clarifying the impact of intrinsic contamination, i.e., amorphous carbon, which is formed on the graphene surface during the high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, the hydrophilic nature of clean graphene grown on single-crystal Cu(111) substrate was confirmed by both experimental and theoretical studies, with an average water contact angle of ∼23°. Furthermore, the wettability of as-transferred graphene was proven to be highly dependent on its intrinsic cleanness, because of which the hydrophilic, clean graphene exhibited improved performance when utilized for cell culture and cryoelectron microscopy imaging. This work not only validates the intrinsic hydrophilic nature of graphene but also provides a new insight in developing advanced bioapplications using CVD-grown clean graphene films.

Keywords: Graphene; cell culture; clean; cryo-EM imaging; hydrophilic; wettability.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cell Culture Techniques
Cryoelectron Microscopy
Graphite* / chemistry
Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
Wettability

Substances

Graphite