Credit: Berkeley Lab
Peptoid nanosheets are a single layer of crystals made from the spontaneous stacking of peptoid chains into parallel rows.
Individual nanosheets floating in water were rapidly frozen and imaged by cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to reveal their atomic structure.
Computer modeling was used to fit the peptoid structure to the imaging data.
Individual atomic positions were determined for the peptoids, enabling researchers to visualize their molecular shape and organization within the lattice.
Distinct bromine atoms (magenta) on the side chains were directly visualized.