Atomic force microscopy , liquid-solid

In this part we will present the power of atomic force microscopy (AFM) for the nanoscale investigations of the solid-isotropic liquid crystal interfaces. The work described here is focused on direct measurements of forces between solid objects, immersed in an isotropic liquid ciystal that is close to the phase transition to an ordered liquid crystalline phase. Solid surfaces induce some liquid crystalline order in the surrounding liquid crystal and this influences the force between the objects. Consequently, it is possible to extract important information about the behaviour of the liquid crystalhne order in the few nanometer thick interfacial layer by studying the forces. 

IR spectroscopic method is developed for evaluating the porosity (concentration and size of pores) in polymers. PE and PAN films of various porosity are prepared from the solutions in liquid and solid paraffins. The concentration and maximum pore size in the bulk and in a surface layer of the samples are determined by IR spectroscopy in the transmission and reflection modes, respectively. The results obtained are in agreement with the data of optical and atomic force microscopy. 12 refs. RUSSIA... 

Aerosol Suspension of colloidal solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas, such as air AFM Atomic force microscopy... 

Kim, J., Kim, G., and Cremer, P. S. 2001. Investigations of water structure at the solid/liquid interface in the presence of supported lipid bUayers by vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy. Langmuir 17 7255. Koenig, B. W., Krueger, S., Orts, W. J., Majkrzak, C. F, Berk, N. F., Silverton, J. V., and Gawrisch, K. 1996. Neutron reflectivity and atomic force microscopy studies of a lipid bilayer in water adsorbed to the surface of a silicon single crystal. Langmuir 12 1343. 

C. Y. Yang, F. H. Ho, and J. A. Yeh, "Observation of liquid/liquid interface by atomic force microscopy," in The 15th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Denver, CO, USA, 2009, pp. 2050-2053. 

This quantity is widely used in atomic force microscopy techniques to give an example. Now, for wetting, it does not really describe the area of the solid surface, which may be in contact with the liquid. More conveniently, we use in this context the so-called Wenzel s variable r defined as... 

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