QUANTIFOIL® Holey Carbon Supports for Cryo-EM
QUANTIFOIL® Holey Carbon supports are a flat film of carbon, 10-12 nm thick, on a cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) grid. They provide a low-background sample support ideal for high-resolution cryo-EM data collection. The optimum grid for your project can be selected from a wide variety of hole shapes, sizes and spacings in combination with a range of base grid materials and mesh sizes.
QUANTIFOIL® holey carbon support films were first described in Ermantraut et al, Ultramicroscopy 74: 75-81 (1998). Some residuals from the production process can remain on the surface of the film on the grid, increasing the thickness to around 20 nm. To maximize the quality and reproducibility of samples when using QUANTIFOIL® grids, we recommend some simple preparatory steps.