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Chemical Force Microscopy

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    278629

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    Chemical force microscopy (CFM) is a technique, which combines the force sensitivity of the AFM with chemical discrimination. This is achieved by modifying probes with covalently linked molecules that terminate in well-defined functional groups or biological molecules. By using a suitable tip modification, chemically specific probing of the surface based on a defined tip-surface interaction can be achieved.1, 2 For example, CFM experiments have been used to probe fundamental adhesion and friction forces at the solid-liquid interface and biological interactions such as biotin and streptavidin.

    CFM Applications

    • Mapping of surfaces with chemical contrast
    • Specific imaging of biological surfaces
    • Imaging of hydrophilic/hydrophobic contrasts
    • Direct determination of intermolecular forces
    • Determination of adhesion forces on local scale
    • Induction of chemical reactions on local scale
    • pKa-value determination
    Fig01.png
    Figure 1. Example of potential CFM applications: Adhesion and intermolecular forces can be determined from force curves using chemically modified tips. In addition CFM can be used to map chemical/biological domains of interest on a surface.

    Online Images:

    Interesting application of CFM to evaluate surface chemistry of skeletal tissue http://www.mnp.leeds.ac.uk/dasmith/CFM.html

    References:

    1. Noy, a.; Vezenov, D. V.; Lieber, C. M. Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci. 1997, 27, 381-421.
    2. Excellent online resource for tip modification and potential applications. http://www.nanocraft.de/pdf/Flyer_CFM.pdf

    This page titled Chemical Force Microscopy is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Heather A. Bullen & Robert A. Wilson via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.