Nanostructured materials atomic force microscopy

Nanostructured materials have also been formed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [24], scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) [25], and atomic force microscopy (AFM) [26], Recent reports on the modification of atomic sites at bare surfaces by STM [27] and the formation of nanometer-scale defects by STM [28] and AFM [29] illustrate the power of these techniques. 

X-ray diffraction technique is a non-destructive analytical technique that reveals information about crystallographic structure, chemical composition and physical properties of nanostructured materials. UV/Vis spectroscopy is routinely used in the quantitative determination of films of nanostructured metal oxides. The size, shape (nanocomb and nanorods etc,) and arrangement of the nanoparticles can be observed through transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies. Surface morphology of nanostructured metal oxides can be observed in atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies. 

Like all types of polymers, conductive polymers are first characterised by spectroscopic techniques, and this is of particular importance for nanostructured materials too. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful (and relatively inexpensive) microscopic technique for surface studies at nanoscale, and sometimes this is essential for the investigation of conductive polymers. Despite available limitations, progress in nanodevices has provided... 

The development of nanostructured conductive polymers also requires the development of advanced characterisation techniques, and this aspect of current research is captured in several chapters. A detailed review of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) covers the wide range of related scanning probe microscopes that are particularly relevant to soft materials. It also shows how techniques such as conductive AFM go beyond structural measurements to image the functional properties of materials relevant to applications such as solar cells. A wide range of spectroscopic techniques has also been reviewed, showing how they can be applied to learn about the interactions between conductive polymers and nanostructured... 

Currently, scaiming probe microscopy (e.g., atomic force microscopy) is often used for testing instead of optical and electron microscopes. A few advanced destructive techniques have been reported for the evaluation of nanostructured material. " However, they are still not good enough for the evaluation of a nanoscaled thin film system (such as electrochemically/electrolessly deposited metal films) owing to critical defects such as voids, delaminations, and debonding sites of the system which often exist in the interior. Therefore, microscopy designed for surface analysis may not be suitable for application to the system directly. 

The development of new nanomaterials demands new techniques for examining such materials, for example, development of complex instruments that act as our eyes and fingers in the nanoworld. Nowadays, microscopy techniques, such as transmission dectron, scanning electron, and atomic force miaoscopy (TEM, SEM, and AFM, respectivdy) are widely used to explore nanostructures. TEM and SEM are destmctive, particularly during the preparation of spedmens, and extreme care is required to avoid damaging samples during... 

---