title: Towards a correlative approach for characterising single virus particles by transmission electron microscopy and nanoscale Raman spectroscopy.
abstract: The morphology and structure of biological nanoparticles, such as viruses, can be efficiently analysed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). To chemically characterise such nanoparticles in heterogeneous samples at the single particle level, we suggest tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) as a correlative method. Here we describe a TERS-compatible staining procedure for TEM which involves sample pre-scanning by TEM imaging, nanoparticle relocalisation by atomic force microscopy (AFM) followed by spectroscopic characterization of the virus nanoparticles using TERS. First successful correlative measurements are demonstrated on tobacco mosaic virus particles deposited on silicon-based TEM sample supports. In addition, the advantages and problems of this methodology are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens - Proteomics and Spectroscopy (ZBS6), Robert Koch-Institute, Seestr. 10, 13353 Berlin, Germany. PHermann@freenet.de.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hermelink
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Naumann
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piesker
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lasch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laue
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hermann
mesh_terms: D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D012825:Silicon; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D014027:Tobacco Mosaic Virus / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014771:Virion / Q000648:ultrastructure*
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon