Molecular resolution electron micrographs of monolamellar paraffin crystals

A liquid helium-cooled cryoelectron microscope, operated to expose the specimen to only a very low electron dose, was used to obtain structural images of monolamellar n-tetratetracontane (n-C44H90) crystals at 0.25-nanometer resolution. These results are in contrast to earlier predictions that such extremely beam-sensitive materials could not be studied directly at this level of detail. Analysis of the resultant lattice images gives direct evidence for crystal bending as well as direct visualization of edge dislocations in this material.