Biological scanning tunneling microscopy

Guokenberger R, Fleim M, Cevo G, Knapp FI F, Wiegrabe W and Flillebrand A 1994 Scanning tunnelling microscopy of insulators and biological specimens based on lateral conductivity of ultrathin water films Science 266 1538... 

Flansma P K, Elings V B, Marti O and Bracker C E 1988 Scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy application to biology and technology Science 242 209... 

Electrochemistry is the basis of many important and modem applications and scientific developments such as nanoscale machining (fabrication of miniature devices with three dimensional control in the nanometer scale), electrochemistry at the atomic scale, scanning tunneling microscopy, transformation of energy in biological cells, selective electrodes for the determination of ions, and new kinds of electrochemical cells, batteries and fuel cells. 

Hansma, P.K. Elings, V.B. Marti, O. Bracker, C.E. Scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy Application to biology and technology. Science 1988, 242, 209-216. 

Lindsay, S. M. The scanning probe microscope in biology, in Bonell, D. (ed.), Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy and Related Techniques, John Wiley Sons, London, in press. 

Lindsay SM (1993) Biological applications of the scanning probe microscope. In Bonnell DA (ed) Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy theory, techniques, and applications. VCH, New York Weinheim... 

Three landmark papers on the application of time-dependent perturbation theory to electrochemical problems were published in rapid succession by - Levich and - Dogonadze in 1959 [iii], - Gerischer in 1960 [iv], and McConnell in 1961 [v]. A very large literature has subsequently sprung from these works, driven by developments in scanning tunneling microscopy, molecular electronics, and biological electron transfer. 

P.K. Hansma. V.B. Elings. O. Marti and C.E. Bracker, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy Application to Biology and Technology, Science 242 (1988) 209 (very informative review). 

Lindsay SM The scanning probe microscope in biology. In Bonnell D (ed) Scanning tunneling microscopy and related techniques. Wiley, New York... 

SECM involves the measurement of the current through an ultramicroelectrode (UME) (an electrode with a radius, a, of the order of a few nm to 25 (zm) when it is held or moved in a solution in the vicinity of a substrate. Substrates, which can be solid surfaces of different types (e.g., glass, metal, polymer, biological material) or liquids (e.g., mercury, immiscible oil), perturb the electrochemical response of the tip, and this perturbation provides information about the nature and properties of the substrate. The development of SECM depended on previous work on the use of ultramicroelectrodes in electrochemistry and the application of piezoelectric elements to position a tip, as in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Certain aspects of SECM behavior also have analogies in electrochemical thin-layer cells and arrays of interdigitated electrodes. 

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