Tecnai 20 g2 s twin

Consistent with the procedures for SEM, the cochleae were fixed overnight at 4°C, washed with cold PBS, and dissected and trimmed to leave only the intact RWM soft tissue. The whole RWM was postfixed in 1% OsO₄ for 2 h, given three 15-min washes with 0.1 M PBS, dehydrated in an ethanol series, infiltrated with Spurr’s resin, and polymerized. The embedded samples were sectioned with an ultramicrotome (Leica EM UC7) at a 90-nm thickness. Images were obtained using a transmission electron microscope (Philips/FEI Tecnai 20 G2 S-Twin).

The crystalline structure of the samples was analyzed by a Rigaku D/Max 2500 powder diffractometer (XRD) (Tokyo, Japan) with Cu Kα radiation (λ = 1.5406 Å). The morphology of the as-prepared samples was characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, FEI SIRION 200, Hillsboro, OR, USA), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM, Philips Tecnai 20 G2 S-TWIN, Hillsboro, OR, USA). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data of the samples were determined with a K-Alpha 1063 electron spectrometer from Thermo Fisher Scientific (East Grinstead, West Sussex, UK) using 72W Al Kα radiation. Infrared spectroscopy analysis (IR) of the samples was performed on an AVATAR360 IR analyzer (Madison, WI, USA). UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-vis) were measured with a Specord 200 UV spectrophotometer (Schönwalde-Glien, Germany).

Instruments of transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) were performed on a Philips/FEI Tecnai 20 G2 S-Twin transmission electron microscope. A small amount of AS1411-DA-AuNPs was dispersed in deionized water by sonicator. A drop of AS1411-DA-AuNPs solution was placed on an amorphous carbon membrane supported by a copper grid. The copper grid was characterized by TEM and EDX. The ligand attachment of fluorescent gold nanoparticles was characterized by FTIR spectrophotometer (JASCO 200E FT-IR) with the resolution of 2 cm⁻¹. UV-vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy was measured by using PerkinElmer HP-8453 and AMINCO Bowman Series 2 spectrometers, respectively, with the resolution of 1 nm.