Frontiers in Nanoscience : A force microscope perspective on ions, proteins and cells
Abstract
This contribution is divided in two sections. The first section is devoted to examine some relevant issues regarding force microscopy and spectroscopy applications on biomolecules such as spatial resolution, molecule deformation, data acquisition speed and quantitative mapping of mechanical properties. Specifically, bimodal force microscopy enables the accurate measurement of the elastic modulus of surfaces in liquid with a spatial resolution of 3 angstroms. This section also provides an introduction to the measurement of elastic and viscoelastic properties of single cells with high spatial resolution. The second section is devoted to present an force microscopy method to generate three dimensional maps of solid-liquid interfaces. The maps provide atomic-scale spatial resolution images of the formation of hydration layers and the adsorption of ions on solid-liquid interfaces. Some applications include the imaging of the atomic structure of hydration layers on crystalline and protein surfaces.
Figure. The left panel schematizes a general probe-based method to investigate the nanomechanical properties of soft matter. The middle panel illustrates the identification of single ions on surfaces. The left panel shows a cell as a linear viscoelastic system.
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