Identification of site-specific isotopic labels by vibrational spectroscopy in the electron microscope

Jordan A. Hachtel; Jingsong Huang; Ilja Popovs; Santa Jansone-Popova; Jong K. Keum; Jacek Jakowski; Tracy C. Lovejoy; Niklas Dellby; Ondrej L. Krivanek; Juan Carlos Idrobo

doi:10.1126/science.aav5845

Identification of site-specific isotopic labels by vibrational spectroscopy in the electron microscope

Jordan A. Hachtel, Jingsong Huang, Ilja Popovs, Santa Jansone-Popova, Jong K. Keum, Jacek Jakowski, Tracy C. Lovejoy, Niklas Dellby, Ondrej L. Krivanek, Juan Carlos Idrobo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

124 Scopus citations

Abstract

The identification of isotopic labels by conventional macroscopic techniques lacks spatial resolution and requires relatively large quantities of material for measurements. We recorded the vibrational spectra of an a amino acid, L-alanine, with damage-free “aloof” electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope to directly resolve carbon-site-specific isotopic labels in real space with nanoscale spatial resolution. An isotopic red shift of 4.8 ± 0.4 milli-electron volts in C-O asymmetric stretching modes was observed for ¹³ C-labeled L-alanine at the carboxylate carbon site, which was confirmed by macroscopic infrared spectroscopy and theoretical calculations.The accurate measurement of this shift opens the door to nondestructive, site-specific, spatially resolved identification of isotopically labeled molecules with the electron microscope.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	525-528
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	363
Issue number	6426
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav5845
State	Published - Feb 1 2019

Funding

The authors thank R. Egerton at the University of Alberta for helpful discussions regarding the maximum spatial resolution of aloof EELS. The authors also thank A. R. Lupini at ORNL and R. F. Klie at University of Illinois at Chicago for helpful discussions during the conception and execution of the experiments. Funding: This research was supported by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility (J.A.H., J.H., J.J., J.K.K., and J.C.I.); the DOE Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division (I.P. and S.J.-P.); and the Neutron Scattering Division (J.K.K.). This research was conducted, in part, using instrumentation within ORNL's Materials Characterization Core provided by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract no. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the DOE. Theoretical calculations used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the DOE Office of Science under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Funders	Funder number
AOL	DE-AC05-00OR22725
Office of Science	DE-AC02-05CH11231

Access to Document

10.1126/science.aav5845

Cite this

@article{e49692571dde45b3aa1164a96291459e,

title = "Identification of site-specific isotopic labels by vibrational spectroscopy in the electron microscope",

abstract = " The identification of isotopic labels by conventional macroscopic techniques lacks spatial resolution and requires relatively large quantities of material for measurements. We recorded the vibrational spectra of an a amino acid, L-alanine, with damage-free “aloof” electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope to directly resolve carbon-site-specific isotopic labels in real space with nanoscale spatial resolution. An isotopic red shift of 4.8 ± 0.4 milli-electron volts in C-O asymmetric stretching modes was observed for 13 C-labeled L-alanine at the carboxylate carbon site, which was confirmed by macroscopic infrared spectroscopy and theoretical calculations.The accurate measurement of this shift opens the door to nondestructive, site-specific, spatially resolved identification of isotopically labeled molecules with the electron microscope.",

author = "Hachtel, {Jordan A.} and Jingsong Huang and Ilja Popovs and Santa Jansone-Popova and Keum, {Jong K.} and Jacek Jakowski and Lovejoy, {Tracy C.} and Niklas Dellby and Krivanek, {Ondrej L.} and Idrobo, {Juan Carlos}",

year = "2019",

month = feb,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1126/science.aav5845",

language = "English",

volume = "363",

pages = "525--528",

journal = "Science",

issn = "0036-8075",

publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

number = "6426",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Identification of site-specific isotopic labels by vibrational spectroscopy in the electron microscope

AU - Hachtel, Jordan A.

AU - Huang, Jingsong

AU - Popovs, Ilja

AU - Jansone-Popova, Santa

AU - Keum, Jong K.

AU - Jakowski, Jacek

AU - Lovejoy, Tracy C.

AU - Dellby, Niklas

AU - Krivanek, Ondrej L.

AU - Idrobo, Juan Carlos

PY - 2019/2/1

Y1 - 2019/2/1

N2 - The identification of isotopic labels by conventional macroscopic techniques lacks spatial resolution and requires relatively large quantities of material for measurements. We recorded the vibrational spectra of an a amino acid, L-alanine, with damage-free “aloof” electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope to directly resolve carbon-site-specific isotopic labels in real space with nanoscale spatial resolution. An isotopic red shift of 4.8 ± 0.4 milli-electron volts in C-O asymmetric stretching modes was observed for 13 C-labeled L-alanine at the carboxylate carbon site, which was confirmed by macroscopic infrared spectroscopy and theoretical calculations.The accurate measurement of this shift opens the door to nondestructive, site-specific, spatially resolved identification of isotopically labeled molecules with the electron microscope.

AB - The identification of isotopic labels by conventional macroscopic techniques lacks spatial resolution and requires relatively large quantities of material for measurements. We recorded the vibrational spectra of an a amino acid, L-alanine, with damage-free “aloof” electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope to directly resolve carbon-site-specific isotopic labels in real space with nanoscale spatial resolution. An isotopic red shift of 4.8 ± 0.4 milli-electron volts in C-O asymmetric stretching modes was observed for 13 C-labeled L-alanine at the carboxylate carbon site, which was confirmed by macroscopic infrared spectroscopy and theoretical calculations.The accurate measurement of this shift opens the door to nondestructive, site-specific, spatially resolved identification of isotopically labeled molecules with the electron microscope.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060811693&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1126/science.aav5845

DO - 10.1126/science.aav5845

M3 - Article

C2 - 30705191

AN - SCOPUS:85060811693

SN - 0036-8075

VL - 363

SP - 525

EP - 528

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 6426

ER -

Identification of site-specific isotopic labels by vibrational spectroscopy in the electron microscope

Abstract

Funding

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this