4690.1:
Nanochemical Surface Analyzer: Tip Functionalization and Analytical Data Processing
Abstract
In combination with an interdependent sister project (16.2, Baltes et al), a nanochemical analyzer on a CMOS platform will be developed and a new massively parallel approach to AFM in material characterization will be established. Arrays of up to ten cantilevers will be realized in industrial CMOS technology. In this subproject, the tips of the cantilevers will be chemically modified with specific coatings, in order to probe chemical and mechanical properties of the sample surface such as adhesion, modulus, hydrophobicity, and interfacial forces in general, by the parallel acquisition of 10 force-distance curves. The coatings will be carefully selected to provide a wide range of possible interactions between tip and sample surface, and the data obtained will be processed using modern methods of analysis such as PCA and neural networks. The new approach allows for fast, simultaneous characterization of the surface properties of materials on the scale of intermolecular forces with a lateral resolution of a few nanometers, which cannot be realized with any other method. Possible applications exist in the areas of on-line surface monitoring and high-thoughput characterization of materials produced using combinatorial approaches.