Confocal microscopy, analytical method

The results herein demonstrated the successful application of parallel combinatorial methods to generate libraries of sensing SAMs covalently immobilized in the wells of a glass microtiter-plate. The fluorescence pattern after exposure of the array to different metal ion solutions allows identification of Cu2+, Co2+, Ca2+, Zn2+ and Pb2+ at 10"4 M concentration by laser confocal microscopy and fluorescence laser scanner. The collection of the unselective response of the monolayers in the presence of the cations generates a characteristic fluorescent pattern, a fingerprint of each analyte in the array. 

In-depth distribution analysis of chemical composition is a special case of local microanalysis, for which the third (axial) dimension is of primary interest. In principle, this task requires the compositional analysis of thin sections (in the ultimate dimension of monatomic layers) defined on a depth scale. It can be obtained either by non-destructive or destructive techniques. Non-destructive techniques are based on an analytical signal parameter (e.g. intensity and/or energy), which has a weU-deflned dependence on its depth of origin. For example, in electron spectroscopy, non-destructive profiling methods are based on either the energy or the emission angle dependence of the mean escape depth of the emitted electrons e.g. ARXPS). Confocal microscopy... 

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