Overview

C-flat™ is an ultra-flat, holey carbon-coated TEM support grid for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and it is the premier holey carbon grid for cryo-transmission electron microscopy.

Unlike competing holey carbon films, C-flat™ is manufactured without plastics, so it is clean upon arrival and the user has no organic residue to contend with. As a result, C-flat™ does not require excessive cleaning in plasma, solvents or acids prior to use.

The C-flat™ Advantage

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 leading to higher quality data and ultimately higher resolution.

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™:

Near-atomic resolution using electron cryomicroscopy and single-particle reconstruction.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 105, Number 6, pp. 1867-1872, 2008.
X. Zhang, E. Settembre, C. Xu, P. R. Dormitzer, R. Bellamy, S. C. Harrison, and N. Grigorieff

Preparation of macromolecular complexes for cryo-electron microscopy.
Nature Protocols, Volume 2, pp. 3239 - 3246, 2007
R. A. Grassucci, D. J. Taylor, and J. Frank

Segrosome structure revealed by a complex of ParR with centromere DNA.
Nature, Volume 450, pp. 1268-1271, 2007
M. A. Schumacher, T. C. Glover, A. J. Brzoska, S. O. Jensen, T. D. Dunham, R. A. Skurray and N. Firth

Automation of random canonical tilt and orthogonal tilt data collection using feature-based correlation.
Journal of Structural Biology, Volume 159, Issue 3, pp. 335-346, September 2007.
C. Yoshioka, J. Pulokas, D. Fellmann, C. S. Potter, R. A. Milligan and B. Carragher

Automated cryoEM data acquisition and analysis of 284 742 particles of GroEL.
Journal of Structural Biology, Volume 155, Issue 3, pp. 470-481, September 2006.
S. M. Stagg, G. C. Lander, J. Pulokas, D.s Fellmann, A. Cheng, J. D. Quispe, S. P. Mallick, R. M. Avila, B. Carragher and C. S. Potter

Does contamination buildup limit throughput for automated cryoEM?
Journal of Structural Biology, Volume 154, Issue 3, pp. 303-311, June 2006.
A. Cheng, D. Fellmann, J. Pulokas, C. S. Potter and B. Carragher

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 1/1, 1/2, 1.2/1.3, 2/0.5, 2/1, 2/2, 2/4, 4/1, 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. Please note that 25 and 50 packs are available only through Electron Microscopy Sciences.

Click here to see a comparison chart (pdf, 1.1MB) with SEM images of the C-flat™ product line.

C-flat™ Part Numbers

* The Multihole device has a staggered pattern of six features consiting of three circle patterns of 1 micron, 1.4 micron and 2 micron diameter and three ellipse patterns of 1x4 microns, 1.4x5.6 microns and 2x8 microns.

Additional products will be added soon, so please check back often for updates. If you would like to be added to the C-flat™ mailing list, please send us an e-mail.

Click here to join the C-flat™ Mailing List now.

C-flat™ Customization

We realize that each customer has unique needs since specimens vary greatly in composition and size. To meet the diverse and demanding needs of the cryoTEM community, C-flat™ can be customized to meet a user's specific requirements. For example, C-flat™ can be manufactured on other grid types such as Gold grids, 100x400 mesh grids, or London Finder grids. The size, shape and spacing of the holes perforating the carbon film can also be customized. For examples, those using electron tomography techniques might desire a larger hole size to allow for increased tilt angles; those using very high magnifications might find a smaller hole size desirable; 2D crystallographers might prefer a a sparse hole pattern to take advantage of the clean and ultra flat surface of
C-flat™; and based upon the specimen preparation and imaging protocols, grid metals other than copper might be required.
C-flat™ can be customized to meet all of these needs.

Please contact Protochips with any custom C-flat™ requests. We will be glad to provide you with a quote for specialized C-flat™ grids. Requests for customized parts can be made directly to Protochips via e-mail to

c-flat@protochips.com.

C-flat™ Holey Carbon Grids for TEM

C-flat™ is a trademark of Protochips, Inc. All rights reserved