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Identification of Ferrous-Ferric Fe3O4 Nanoparticles in Recombinant Human Ferritin Cages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2013

Michael G. Walls ,
Changqian Cao ,
Kui Yu-Zhang ,
Jinhua Li ,
Renchao Che  and
Yongxin Pan
Michael G. Walls
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physiques des Solides, UMR CNRS 8502, Bât. 510, 91405 Orsay, France
Changqian Cao
Affiliation:
Franco-Chinese Bio-Mineralization and Nano-Structures Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Earth's Deep Interior, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Kui Yu-Zhang*
Affiliation:
Dépt. Physique, Université de Reims, B.P. 1039, 51687 Reims, France
Jinhua Li
Affiliation:
Franco-Chinese Bio-Mineralization and Nano-Structures Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Earth's Deep Interior, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Renchao Che
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, 2205 Songhu Road, Shanghai 200438, China
Yongxin Pan
Affiliation:
Franco-Chinese Bio-Mineralization and Nano-Structures Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Earth's Deep Interior, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: kui.yu@univ-reims.fr
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Abstract

Recombinant ferritin is an excellent template for the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles. This paper describes carefully performed experiments both to identify ironoxides within nanoparticles and to measure the number of iron atoms in the cores of recombinant human H-chain ferritin (HFn), based on spectroscopy techniques. Using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) analysis, magnetite (Fe3O4) has been unequivocally identified as the ironoxide formed within HFn cores under special preparation conditions. Atom counting analysis by EELS and high-angle annular dark-field imaging further allowed the correlation of the particle sizes to the real Fe atom numbers in a quantitative manner. These results help clarify some structural confusion between magnetite and maghemite (γ-Fe2O3), and also provide standard data for the number of Fe atoms within Fe3O4 particles of a given size, whose use is not limited to cases of magnetite synthesized in the cores of recombinant human ferritin.

Keywords

ferritinironoxidesnanoparticleTEMEELSHAADF
Type
Biological Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , August 2013 , pp. 835 - 841
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2013 

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