Abstract
Recent progress in surface science, nanotechnology and biophysics has cast new light on the correlation between the physicochemical properties of biomaterials and the resulting biological response. One experimental tool that promises to generate an increasingly more sophisticated knowledge of how proteins, cells and bacteria interact with nanostructured surfaces is the atomic force microscope (AFM). This unique instrument permits to close in on interfacial events at the scale at which they occur, the nanoscale. This perspective covers recent developments in the exploitation of the AFM, and suggests insights on future opportunities that can arise from the exploitation of this powerful technique.
Highlights
The atomic force microscope (AFM) allows to image, measure, manipulate and sense matter at the nanometric level
The AFM consists of a sharp tip mounted at the end of a microfabricated flexible cantilever which is raster scanned across the sample’s surface
For cells and bacteria imaging, chemical immobilization is often required to anchor them onto substrates in order to prevent their movement during imaging.[39,45]
Summary
The AFM allows to image, measure (quantify), manipulate and sense matter at the nanometric level. From this first description, it readily transpires that this microscope is not an instrument to visualize small features, but instead a more powerful toolbox that offers additional remarkable capacities beyond imaging. It readily transpires that this microscope is not an instrument to visualize small features, but instead a more powerful toolbox that offers additional remarkable capacities beyond imaging These will be discussed below, aiming at providing the reader with a critical overview of selected applications of the AFM in biomaterials surface science
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