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Bulk chemical composition contrast from attractive forces in AFM force spectroscopy
Dorothee Silbernagl1, Media Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani1, Natalia Cano Murillo1
1BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, Unter den Eichen 87, 12205 Berlin, Germany.
Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology
|February 10, 2021
Summary
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) can now correlate local chemical composition with mechanical properties. Measuring attractive forces (F_attr) alongside stiffness (k_r) provides a complete structure-property correlation for heterogeneous materials.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Surface Science
Background:
- Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is crucial for measuring nanoscale physical properties.
- Current AFM methods like force-distance curves (FDCs) and intermodulation AFM (ImAFM) assess mechanical properties (e.g., stiffness, k_r) but lack chemical identification.
- Achieving a complete structure-property correlation in heterogeneous materials requires integrating chemical information.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate that measuring the attractive force (F_attr) between the AFM tip and sample provides independent local chemical composition data.
- To establish a complete structure-property correlation by combining mechanical and chemical measurements.
- To validate the approach using model and complex heterogeneous material systems.
Main Methods:
- Utilized AFM with force-distance curves (FDCs) and intermodulation AFM (ImAFM) to measure local stiffness (k_r) and attractive forces (F_attr).
- Employed AFM topography for material phase assignment in model samples (epoxy/polycarbonate, epoxy/boehmite).
- Integrated AFM with infrared spectroscopy for nanoscale chemical characterization and manual principle component analysis (mPCA) on k_r/F_attr diagrams.
Main Results:
- Attractive force (F_attr) measurements were shown to be independent indicators of local chemical composition.
- A complete structure-property correlation was achieved by analyzing k_r/F_attr diagrams.
- The method successfully characterized the nanoscopic heterogeneity of a complex epoxy/polycarbonate/boehmite sample using ImAFM.
Conclusions:
- Measuring attractive forces (F_attr) in AFM offers a direct route to understanding local chemical composition.
- Combining mechanical (k_r) and chemical (F_attr) data via k_r/F_attr diagrams enables comprehensive structure-property correlations.
- This integrated AFM approach is effective for analyzing the nanoscopic heterogeneity of complex materials.
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