Nanoscale Electrowetting Effects Studied by Atomic Force Microscopy

Abstract

Electric field effect on adhesive characteristics of the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) surface is studied by using force spectroscopy method of atomic force microscope (AFM). The adhesive interaction between the AFM tip and dielectric surface is obtained by monitoring the force−distance spectroscopy, which reflects the change of the surface tension under the influence of external electric field. Such changes in adhesion characteristics are attributed to the electrowetting effect at relatively low electrical field strength and the electrowetting saturation effect at high electrical field strength. It is also suggested that the force spectroscopy method has noticeably high stability in studying adhesion characteristics at nanometer scale.

Nanoscale Electrowetting Effects Observed by Using Friction Force Microscopy

“…The nanometer scale distance between tip and sample gives rise to extremely high electric field values, permitting the study of the EW phenomenon at a wider range of electric field strengths. In previous report, 9 the adhesion force F adh under the influence of the EW phenomena showed similar result as the macroscopic contact angle measurements at different electric field strengths. F adh measured between a conductive AFM tip and a smooth dielectric film was expressed as a function of the external applied voltage (V) 9…”

Synthesis of zeolite-casted microporous carbons and their hydrogen storage capacity

“…The diffraction peak at 2h = 26°, which corresponded to the (0 0 2) diffraction of graphitic carbon, was weak compared to the diffraction peak at 2h = 13°corresponding to turbostaratic carbons. This suggests that the ZMiPC samples contain a large proportion of amorphous carbon structures [34,35]. On the other hand, the peak intensities of the chemically treated ZMiPC (both A-ZMiPC and B-ZMiPC) decreased significantly, resulting from an increase in the irregularity of carbon structures [36].…”

Lithium Ion–Water Clusters in Strong Electric Fields: A Quantum Chemical Study

“…in ion channels in cell membranes, 76 in membrane electroporation [9][10][11] or at the tip of an atomic force microscope. 77 In fact, the electric field at an ordinary air-water interface has been calculated using the SPC/E water model and Table 1) is around 6.1 kJ/mol or 28% of the total interaction energy. …”