AFM phase imaging of soft-hydrated samples: a versatile tool to complete the chemical-physical study of liposomes

Despite of the several approaches applied to the physicochemical characterization of liposomes, few techniques are really useful to obtain information about the surface properties of these colloidal drug-delivery systems. In this paper, we demonstrate a possible new application of tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) to discriminate between conventional and pegylated liposomes. We showed that the differences on liposomal surface properties revealed by the phase images AFM approach well correlate with the data obtained using classical methods, such as light scattering, hydrodynamic, and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis.