C-flat™ Holey Carbon Films & Grids for Cryo-TEM

Overview

C-flat™ is an ultra-flat, holey carbon-coated TEM support grid for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Unlike competing holey carbon films, C-flat™ is manufactured without plastics, so it is clean upon arrival and the user has no residue to contend with.

C-flat™ leads to better data sets

Made with patent pending technology, C-flat™ provides an ultra-flat surface that results in better particle dispersion and more uniform ice thickness. Patterning is done using deep-UV projection lithography, ensuring the most accurate and consistent hole shapes and sizes down to submicron features. The precise methods by which C-flat™ is manufactured eliminate artefacts such as excess carbon and edges around holes.

C-flat™ is affordable

C-flat™ is available in 25, 50, and 100 packs at a per-grid price less than competing products.

Applications

C-flat™ holey carbon grids provide the ideal specimen support to achieve high resolution data in cryo-TEM making them an ideal choice for single particle analysis, cryo electron tomography and automated TEM analysis.

Cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) and Single Particle Analysis ( SPA )

Numerous researchers have reported that the ultra-flat surface of C-flat™ leads to even ice thickness and uniform particle distribution within the hole areas. This optimal particle distribution results in superior data being collected as compared with other holey support films. 2µm hole sizes are standard but custom hole sizes are available so C-flat™ can accommodate the common magnifications used for quantitative TEM analysis.

Automated TEM

C-flat™ provides a regular array of analysis sites compatible with automated data collection software such as Leginon. This compatibility, in combination with the more uniform ice thickness and particle distribution reported by numerous researchers, results in more high-quality target sites per grid.

Publications using C-flat™:

Does contamination buildup limit through put for automated cryoEM? , Journal of Structural Biology, Volume 154, Issue 3, June 2006, Pages 303-311 Anchi Cheng, Denis Fellmann, James Pulokas, Clinton S. Potter and Bridget Carragher

Automated cryoEM data acquisition and analysis of 284 742 particles of GroEL , Journal of Structural Biology, In Press, Uncorrected Proof, Available online 22 May 2006, Scott M. Stagg, Gabriel C. Lander, James Pulokas, Denis Fellmann, Anchi Cheng, Joel D. Quispe, Satya P. Mallick, Radomir M. Avila, Bridget Carragher and Clinton S. Potter

Product Line

C-flat™ is a holey carbon film supported by a standard TEM grid. C-flat™ products are fully specified by 4 parameters: the hole diameter and pitch of the holey carbon film and the material type and mesh size of the TEM grid. The following image illustrates these parameters:

Standard Products

The breadth of applications in cryoTEM necessitate a wide range of holey carbon film patterns. And now, with the recent expansion of the product line, a C-flat™ holey carbon film is available for almost any application. Whether 600nm holes are needed for very high magnifications with ultra-high resolution cameras or large open areas are needed for larger specimens, C-flat™ is the perfect holey carbon grid.

C-flat™ is immediately available in several standard array patterns including hole diameters/hole spacings of 0.6/2, 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1.2/1.3, 2/1, 2/2, 2/4, 4/2, and a multihole pattern. C-flat™ is supported by your choice of a 200 mesh or 400 mesh copper TEM grid and sold in quantities of 25, 50, or 100.