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Dave Durham recommended that I ask this question here...
I am looking for an AFM probe that would be well suited to examining silica aerogel materials on a Dimension Icon. I will be attempting to examine the materials before and after syneresis so the porosity may be anywhere from 5nm to > 100nm. While individual samples are quite level, the thickness of a sample may be as thin as 100um or as thick as 3000um. Some of the gels may be of binary oxide composition or be composited with a polymer or epoxy.
I will appreciate any advice or insights someone may provide to put me on the right track.
In general, I will give a pretty similar response to the previous question on probe selection: If you are using PFT, try both ScanAsyst Air, or SNL -B (~0.3 N/m); for fluid - ScanAsyst_Fluid (~0.7 N/m). If you plan to use tapping, try FESPA or TESPA probes.
That said I am not as familiar with you sample as I might need to be. Can you tell me a little more about it? I did a quick wiki search and it appears that it is both hard and non-adhesive and you will be scanning in air. If so the above recommendation is good. If not, please post the modulus and other noteworthy characteristics.
Happy scanning,
Steve
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the reply. They are non adhesive, but the hardness of the samples can change. For instance, before the gel has fully dried it can have a modulus between 10-100MPa and after drying they can be greater than 1GPa. The glassified samples are relatively robust, but the gels that still more gel than glass tend to be very brittle and quite susceptible to cracking.
As for the adhesive issue, I am looking at designing a sample holder that can clamp the samples in place so that they do not drag while being scanned (A colleague ran a sample on another machine and that seemed to be an issue)
I appreciate your suggestions, I think I've got somewhere to start now.
/Arthur
Stephen Minne: In general, I will give a pretty similar response to the previous question on probe selection: If you are using PFT, try both ScanAsyst Air, or SNL -B (~0.3 N/m); for fluid - ScanAsyst_Fluid (~0.7 N/m). If you plan to use tapping, try FESPA or TESPA probes. That said I am not as familiar with you sample as I might need to be. Can you tell me a little more about it? I did a quick wiki search and it appears that it is both hard and non-adhesive and you will be scanning in air. If so the above recommendation is good. If not, please post the modulus and other noteworthy characteristics. Happy scanning, Steve