Microstructure studies atomic force microscopy

These recent studies provide a framework for micromechanical analyses using material properties measured on the microstructural level. They also point to using nano-scale measurements, such as those provided by atomic force microscopy (AFM), to analyze the mechanics of bone on the smallest unit of structure shown in Figure 47.1. 

Boussard and Tao [41,42] used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study cast and self-assembled, adsorbed DDAB layers on highly ordered PG (HOPG) electrodes. Consistent with Figure 4, theirresults suggested that Mb inserts into the DDAB bilayers. A potential-driven phase transition of adsorbed DDAB was observed by AFM, which may cause physical movement of the DDAB microstructures close to the electrode and possibly assist in mass transport of Mb during CV scans. 

The microstructure of zso-phthalate polyester films before and after exposure at room temperature to an alkaline solution was studied using tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) [133]. The results of structural characterization as well as chemical analyses using attenuated total reflection FT-IR, total carbon analysis and liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy showed that the base-catalyzed hydrolysis of polyester was a heterogeneous process. The formation of pits occurs as a result of hydrolysis and the number and size of pits increases with exposure time. 

With the advent of confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy (CLSFM) [39], multiple photon microscopy (MPM) [40,41], and atomic force microscopy (AFM) [5], three new tools have been added to the standard tools of light microscopy (LM) [42-45] and electron microscopy (EM) [35,46-50] that were most widely used in the past to study the microstructure of fats and foods in general. The work of Heertje et al. [35,36,39,51] on visualization of the microstructure in fats remains one of the most important contributions to the field. In their method, a cold solvent mixture (butanol-methanol) was used to remove the liquid oil form the solid fat in a sample mounted on a special holder. After removal of the liquid oil, the structure of the solid fat network could be visualized. 

Morphological study for hybrid/composite manbranes is a very important method to investigate the microstructure and thus correlate with the properties of the composite polyelectrolytes. To better understand the structure-property relationship for PEMs, except for spectral analysis as mentioned earlier, microscopic studies such as field mission (FE) scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AEM) technologies are basically extensively utilized. 

---