Hierarchically Nanostructured Biomembrane- and Polymer- Surfaces with Characterized Using Atomic Force Microscopy
Abstract
Antimicrobial treatment of surfaces is an alternative and a promising way to cope with increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics, one of the burning problems of our society. Hierarchically nanostructured surfaces with pillar-like patterns have shown antibacterial properties induced by mechanical interactions between the pillars and cell wall.
Such structures are present on the wings of multiple dragonfly and cicada species, serving as an inspiration for development of surface-modified polymer materials which would have same pillar nanostructure. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a powerful imaging technique which is capable of producing very high-resolution images and topological data in scales of nanometers.
The quality of the obtained data is mainly determined by the quality of used AFM tip probe and fine adjustment of measuring parameters and settings of the AFM device. The measurement becomes more challenging if the AFM probe is about to approach soft and elastic surfaces which, due to their properties, tend to bend and vibrate when being measured or stick to the probe tip bottom and hence distort the measurement or even damage the probe.
These malfunctions become even more problematic if a dense high-aspect ratio nanopillar network occurs on such surfaces. Yet, the ability to measure materials without necessary surface modifications is a decisive advantage for attempting to use AFM even on such materials.
Here we present AFM topography characterization of dragonfly wings nanostructure and their polymer replicas manufactured from various soft polymers.