There is great interest in the application of proximal probe techniques to simultaneously image and measure mechancial properties of surfaces with nanoscale spatial resolution. There have been several innovations in generating time-resolved force interaction between the tip and surface while acquiring a tapping mode AFM image. These tip/sample forces contain information regarding mechanical properties of surfaces in an analogous fashion to a force curve experiment. Here, we demonstrate, via simulation, that the maximum and minimum tapping forces change with respect to the Young’s modulus and adhesiveness of a surface, but the roughness of the surfaces has no effect on the tapping forces. Using these changes in tapping forces, we determine the mechanical changes of a lipid membrane after exposure to a huntingtin exon1 (htt exon1) protein with an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) domain. Expanded polyQ domains in htt is associated with Huntington’s disease, a genetic neurodegenerative disorder. The htt exon1 protein caused regions of increased surface roughness to appear in the lipid membrane, and these areas were associated with decreased elasticity and adhesion to the AFM probe.
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Principle and applications of peak force infrared microscopy
Peak force infrared (PFIR) microscopy is an emerging atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based infrared microscopy that bypasses Abbe's diffraction limit on spatial resolution. The PFIR microscopy utilizes a nanoscopically sharp AFM tip to mechanically detect the tip-enhanced infrared photothermal response of the sample in the time domain. The time-gated mechanical signals of cantilever deflections transduce the infrared absorption of the sample, delivering infrared imaging and spectroscopy capability at sub 10 nm spatial resolution. Both the infrared absorption response and mechanical properties of the sample are obtained in parallel while preserving the surface integrity of the sample. This review describes the constructions of the PFIR microscope and several variations, including multiple-pulse excitation, total internal reflection geometry, dual-color configuration, liquid-phase operations, and integrations with simultaneous surface potential measurement. Representative applications of PFIR microscopy are also included in this review. In the outlook section, we lay out several future directions of innovations in PFIR microscopy and applications in chemical and material research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1847765
- PAR ID:
- 10393115
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Chemical Society Reviews
- Volume:
- 51
- Issue:
- 13
- ISSN:
- 0306-0012
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 5268 to 5286
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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