AFM Study of Water Meniscus Formation between an AFM Tip and NaCl Substrate

Rozhok, Sergey; Sun, Peng; Piner, Richard D.; Lieberman, Marya; Mirkin, Chad A.

doi:10.1021/jp0401269

Cited by 88 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(59 reference statements)

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“…In support of this model, SEM images of aqueous meniscus formation between an AFM tip and a substrate under ambient conditions were recently reported (Weeks et al 2005). In addition, we have shown that a meniscus is always present unless DPN is performed under UHV conditions (Rozhok et al 2003(Rozhok et al , 2004. A fundamental issue with a meniscus-based transport mechanism pertains to the effect of the composition of the meniscus on the transport rate of ink molecules.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

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The effects of organic vapor on alkanethiol deposition via Dip‐pen nanolithography

Salaita¹,

Amarnath²,

Higgins³

et al. 2010

Scanning

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Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is a scanning probe-based technique that allows for direct delivery of molecules to a range of substrates with sub-50 nm resolution. This study describes the effect of organic solvent vapor on the deposition rate and feature size of nanostructures deposited via DPN. The transport rate of model molecular inks, 1-octadecanethiol, and 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid were examined under atmospheres of ethanol, methanol, hexane, and dichloromethane. In all cases, presence of an organic vapor increased deposition rate and feature size, in some cases by an order of magnitude. This underscores how the environment can be used to regulate molecular transport rates in a DPN experiment.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…An ODT-coated tip was used for patterning under a dry N 2 atmosphere (It has been shown that residual water exists at the point of contact between the tip and the surface under these conditions.) (Rozhok et al 2004) and then subsequently used for patterning under a dichloromethane atmosphere (Fig. 2(A, B)).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of organic vapor on alkanethiol deposition via Dip‐pen nanolithography

Salaita¹,

Amarnath²,

Higgins³

et al. 2010

Scanning

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“…Results of other studies showed that due to the strong capillary condensation (on hydrophilic surfaces), the adhesion force between silicon nitride or silicon AFM tip and different clean and fresh surfaces such as mica and silicon wafer was observed to first increase and then decrease with an increase in humidity [42,58,59]. S. Rozhok et al showed that adhesion force on NaCl substrate is a function of relative humidity too [60].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Adhesion between Fine Particles and Nanocontacts: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

et al. 2006

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To optimize the handling of fine powders in industrial applications, understanding the interaction forces between single powder particles is fundamental. The forces between colloidal particles dominate the behavior of a great variety of materials, including paints, paper, soil, and many industrial processes. With the invention of the atomic force microscope (AFM), the direct measurement of the interaction between single micron-sized particles became possible. The adhesional contact between a particle and a substrate is a parameter for analyzing pull-off force data generated by AFM. The aim of this study was to understand surface interactions between fine particles. I measured the adhesion forces between AFM tips or particles attached to AFM cantilevers and different solid samples. Smooth and homogeneous surfaces such as silicon wafer, mica, or highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), and more rough and heterogeneous surfaces such as iron particles or patterns of TiO 2 nanoparticles on silicon wafer were used. First, I addressed to the wellknown issue that AFM adhesion experiment results show wide distributions of adhesion forces rather than a single value. My experimental results show that variations in adhesion forces comprise fast (i.e., from one force curves to the next) random fluctuations and slower fluctuations, which occur over tens or hundreds of consecutive measurements. Slow fluctuations are not likely to be the result of variations in external factors such as lateral position, temperature, humidity, and so forth because those were kept constant. Even if two solid bodies are brought into contact under precisely the same conditions (same place, load, direction, etc.) the result of such a measurement will often not be the same as for the previous contact. The measurement itself will induce structural changes in the contact region which can change the value for the next adhesion force measurement.In the second part I studied the influence of humidity on the adhesion of nanocontacts. Humidity was adjusted relatively fast to minimize tip wear during one experiment. For hydrophobic surfaces, no signification change of adhesion force with humidity was observed. Adhesion force-versus-humidity curves recorded with hydrophilic surfaces either showed a maximum or continuously increased. I demonstrate that the results can be interpreted with simple continuum theory of the meniscus force. The meniscus force is calculated based on a model that includes surface roughness and takes into account different AFM tip (or particle) shapes by a two-sphere-model.Experimental and theoretical results show that the precise contact geometry has a critical influence on the humidity dependence of the adhesion force.Changes of tip geometry on the sub-10-nm length scale can completely change adhesion force-versus-humidity curves. Our model can also explain the differences between earlier AFM studies, where different dependencies of the adhesion force on humidity were observed.Keywords: Atomic force microscopy (AFM), cantile...

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“…This also builds on previous observations in which material dissolved from the surface in the presence of a thin aqueous condensate layer was shown to re-deposit on the surface at the point of contact between the tip and the substrate. The simplest case reported was the drying of a solution droplet condensed between a surface and the AFM tip by capillarity action [44] after tip removal [32]. But more interesting, though not yet understood, was the re-deposition of crystal material in the area over which the tip-substrate meniscus was scanned in the absence of drying.…”

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confidence: 99%

Solvent-mediated repair and patterning of surfaces by AFM

Elhadj¹,

Chernov

Yoreo³

2008

Nanotechnology

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A tip-based approach to shaping surfaces of soluble materials with nanometer-scale control is reported.The proposed method can be used, for example, to eliminate defects and inhomogeneities in surface shape, repair mechanical or laser-induced damage to surfaces, or perform 3D lithography on the length scale of an AFM tip. The phenomenon that enables smoothing and repair of surfaces is based on the transport of material from regions of high-to low-curvature within the solution meniscus formed in a solvent-containing atmosphere between the surface in question and an AFM tip scanned over the surface. Using in situ AFM measurements of the kinetics of surface remodeling on KDP (KH 2 PO 4 ) crystals in humid air, we show that redistribution of solute material during relaxation of grooves and mounds is driven by a reduction in surface free energy as described by the Gibbs-Thomson law. We find that the perturbation from a flat interface evolves according to the diffusion equation where the effective diffusivity is determined by the product of the surface stiffness and the step kinetic coefficient.We also show that, surprisingly, if the tip is instead scanned over or kept stationary above an atomically flat area of the surface, a convex structure is formed with a diameter that is controlled by the dimensions of the meniscus, indicating that the presence of the tip and meniscus reduces the substrate chemical 2 potential beneath that of the free surface. This allows one to create nanometer-scale 3D structures of arbitrary shape without the removal of substrate material or the use of extrinsic masks or chemical compounds. Potential applications of these tip-based phenomena are discussed.

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AFM Study of Water Meniscus Formation between an AFM Tip and NaCl Substrate

Cited by 88 publications

References 25 publications

The effects of organic vapor on alkanethiol deposition via Dip‐pen nanolithography

The effects of organic vapor on alkanethiol deposition via Dip‐pen nanolithography

On the Adhesion between Fine Particles and Nanocontacts: An Atomic Force Microscope Study

Solvent-mediated repair and patterning of surfaces by AFM

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