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Preparation, comparison and performance of hydrophobic AFM tips
Author(s) -
Knapp H. F.,
Stemmer A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9918(199905/06)27:5/6<324::aid-sia489>3.0.co;2-j
Subject(s) - silanization , octadecyltrichlorosilane , coating , materials science , atomic force microscopy , adhesion , chemical engineering , chemical vapor deposition , contact angle , layer (electronics) , nanotechnology , abrasion (mechanical) , analytical chemistry (journal) , composite material , chemistry , chromatography , engineering
Hydrophobic coatings for atomic force microscopy (AFM)tips generated through sputter coating with gold, chemical vapourdeposition from a hexafluoropropene plasma or silanization withoctadecyltrichlorosilane are compared with respect to theirmacroscopic hydropobicity, influence on tip radius, abrasionbehaviour during imaging and complexity of the coating procedure. Theperformance of the coated tips is assessed by measuring theiradhesion from force curves at different humidities. From these tests,the hexafluoropropene plasma‐treated tips turned out toexhibit the best overall quality and so are used to image thehexagonally packed intermediate surface (HPI) layer of theeubacterium Deinococcus radiodurans , a naturaltwo‐dimensional protein crystal, to demonstrate the capabilityof these tips to image fragile, hydrophilic samples at highhumidities with reduced tip–sample adhesion. Copyright ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.