Observation on fine morphology of organic high-axial-ratio microstructures

dSynthetic sugar-, peptide-, and nucleobase-appended bolaamphiphiles genera lly self-assemble in aqueous media to form nanoscale or mesoscale high-axia l-ratio microstructures (HARMs), such as fibers, tubes, and rods. Aiming at examining fine morphologies and hierarchical structures of these organic H ARMs under in situ conditions, we employed confocal laser scanning microsco py (LSM), energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy (EF-TEM), cryo- TEM, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and dark-held light microscopy (DFLM). As a result, we were able to obtain well-resolved microscopic images that r eflected the original forms, without damaging or changing the morphologies. Here we describe a variety of HARM images and their characteristics. The i mages obtained include (1) a cross-section profile of a twisted fibrous HAR M observed;ed using LSM, (2) direct LSM observation in water of fibrous HAR M with a width of less than 1 mu m, (3) EF-TEM observation of twisted HARM ls without the need for prior staining, (4) boundary water on surfaces of f ibrous HARM observed using cryo-TEM, (5) thickness evaluation of st microtu be membrane using AFM, and (6) effective DFLM observation of double-helical rapes.