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Abstract A quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is an instrument that has the ability to measure nanogram‐level changes in mass on a quartz sensor and is traditionally used to probe surface interactions and assembly kinetics of synthetic systems. The addition of dissipation monitoring (QCM‐D) facilitates the study of viscoelastic systems, such as those relevant to molecular and cellular mechanics. Due to real‐time recording of frequency and dissipation changes and single protein‐level precision, the QCM‐D is effective in interrogating the viscoelastic properties of cell surfaces and in vitro cellular components. However, few studies focus on the application of this instrument to cytoskeletal systems, whose dynamic parts create interesting emergent mechanics as ensembles that drive essential tasks, such as division and motility. Here, we review the ability of the QCM‐D to characterize key kinetic and mechanical features of the cytoskeleton through in vitro reconstitution and cellular assays and outline how QCM‐D studies can yield insightful mechanical data alone and in tandem with other biophysical characterization techniques.
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This content will become publicly available on December 1, 2025
Viscoelastic Properties of Electrospray‐Deposited Polymer Shells via Quartz Crystal Microbalance With Dissipation (QCM‐D)
Multilayer polymer films are extensively used in multiphase separation. Electrospray deposition (ESD) is an important technique for fabricating such films with tunable morphology. Viscoelastic properties of polystyrene (PS) nanoshell coatings produced by ESD on gold and spin‐coated PS surfaces are evaluated using Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCM‐D). The thickness of PS films on gold increases with flow rate from ∼200 nm at 0.5 to ∼400 nm at 1.5 mL h^−1, accompanied by an order‐of‐magnitude increase in dissipation due to larger particle sizes from shorter droplet flight times. This effect is absent on spin–coated PS films, suggesting the onset of the self‐limiting effect of charges. Although the shear moduli for ESD films calculated from Voigt models is only 0.08%–0.20% of the bulk PS modulus, the stiffness ratio of spray‐coated PS to a single shell is (5.00–13.3) × 10^3 m^−1, due to shell–shell and shell–substrate interactions. These are novel results related to the interparticle friction obtained using QCM‐D for the first time. This work demonstrates that mechanical properties of particulate viscoelastic films with potential applications in high surface area sensors, such as size‐selective membranes for protein or electrolyte adsorption, can be evaluated by QCM‐D with nanograms of material.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2019849
- PAR ID:
- 10561789
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Macromolecular Materials and Engineering
- Volume:
- 309
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 1438-7492
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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