Dec 19 2012
The Society for Applied Spectroscopy features a new review paper from Anasys Instruments on the combining of atomic force microscopy and infrared spectroscopy on the cover of its flagship journal, Applied Spectroscopy, December 2012.
The December cover of Applied Spectroscopy featuring the Focal Point article on nanoscale AFM-IR.
The journal describes the highlighted Focal Point article for their final issue of 2012. This reviews a powerful new capability which enables the chemical characterization of polymeric and biological samples at nanoscale spatial resolutions via infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The combination of a broadly tunable IR laser source with photothermal detection via the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) permits the collection of sub-diffraction-limited IR spectra with band contours identical to those obtained by conventional transmission IR spectroscopy.
The cover images show how the AFM-IR technique is used to acquire IR absorption spectra and absorption images with spatial resolution on the 50-100 nm scale, including the mapping of an IR-absorbing species in a single bacterium cell and the ability to differentiate the chemical composition of individual polymeric domains in a model pharmaceutical formulation.
Finally, it is shown that by controlling the polarization of the IR excitation laser, it is possible to obtain important information regarding the molecular orientation in electrospun nanofibers. For more information, please see the Focal Point article ''AFM-IR: Combining Atomic Force Microscopy and Infrared Spectroscopy for Nanoscale Chemical Characterization'', by Alexandre Dazzi, Craig B. Prater, Qichi Hu, D. Bruce Chase, John F. Rabolt, and Curtis Marcott. The article can be viewed online here.The December cover of Applied Spectroscopy featuring the Focal Point article on nanoscale AFM-IR.
For more information on the technique and its myriad of applications, please visit the Anasys web site.