A scanning transmission x-ray microscope for materials science spectromicroscopy at the advanced light source

Design and performance of a scanning transmission x-ray microscope (STXM) at the Advanced Light Source is described. This instrument makes use of a high brightness undulator beamline and extends the STXM technique to new areas of research. After 2.5 years of development it is now an operational tool for research in polymer science, environmental chemistry, and magnetic materials. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71051/2/RSINAK-69-8-2964-1.pd

Carbon nanotubes allow capture of krypton, barium and lead for multichannel biological X-ray fluorescence imaging

The desire to study biology in situ has been aided by many imaging techniques. Among these, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping permits observation of elemental distributions in a multichannel manner. However, XRF imaging is underused, in part, because of the difficulty in interpreting maps without an underlying cellular ‘blueprint’; this could be supplied using contrast agents. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be filled with a wide range of inorganic materials, and thus can be used as ‘contrast agents’ if biologically absent elements are encapsulated. Here we show that sealed single-walled CNTs filled with lead, barium and even krypton can be produced, and externally decorated with peptides to provide affinity for sub-cellular targets. The agents are able to highlight specific organelles in multiplexed XRF mapping, and are, in principle, a general and versatile tool for this, and other modes of biological imaging