Negative staining

This method is used to visualize small particulates (e.g. biomolecules, isolated organelles, virus, filaments etc). A drop of the sample in solution is put on a grid. Excess of the solution is removed by a filter paper followed by addition of a contrasting agent (usually uranyl acetate). After removing the contrasting agent by a filter paper, the grid is left to air dry befor imaged in our TEM at 80kV-200kV.

It is possible to combine immunogold labeling and negative staining.

Note: Negative staining is usually used as a first check to see what you have in your sample before performing e.g. Single Particle Analysis.