Showing papers by "Arvind Raman published in 2016"

Mechanical properties of cellulose nanomaterials studied by contact resonance atomic force microscopy

Abstract: Quantification of the mechanical properties of cellulose nanomaterials is key to the development of new cellulose nanomaterial based products. Using contact resonance atomic force microscopy we measured and mapped the transverse elastic modulus of three types of cellulosic nanoparticles: tunicate cellulose nanocrystals, wood cellulose nanocrystals, and wood cellulose nanofibrils. These modulus values were calculated with different contact mechanics models exploring the effects of cellulose geometry and thickness on the interpretation of the data. While intra-particle variations in modulus are detected, we did not observe a measureable difference in modulus between the three types of cellulose particles. Improved practices and experimental complications for the characterization of cellulosic nanomaterials with atomic force microscopy are discussed.

Nanoscale Mapping of Dielectric Properties of Nanomaterials from Kilohertz to Megahertz Using Ultrasmall Cantilevers

Abstract: Electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) is often used for nanoscale dielectric spectroscopy, the measurement of local dielectric properties of materials as a function of frequency. However, the frequency range of atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based dielectric spectroscopy has been limited to a few kilohertz by the resonance frequency and noise of soft microcantilevers used for this purpose. Here, we boost the frequency range of local dielectric spectroscopy by 3 orders of magnitude from a few kilohertz to a few megahertz by developing a technique that exploits the high resonance frequency and low thermal noise of ultrasmall cantilevers (USCs). We map the frequency response of the real and imaginary components of the capacitance gradient (∂C(ω)/∂z) by using second-harmonic EFM and a theoretical model, which relates cantilever dynamics to the complex dielectric constant. We demonstrate the method by mapping the nanoscale dielectric spectrum of polymer-based materials for organic electronic devices. Beyond offe...

Enhancing the optical lever sensitivity of microcantilevers for dynamic atomic force microscopy via integrated low frequency paddles.

Abstract: A method is presented to enhance the optical lever sensitivity in dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM) by nearly an order of magnitude over a wide frequency bandwidth. This is achieved by fabricating or releasing a paddle with a soft hinge close to the free end of the AFM microcantilever such that the paddle resonance frequency is well below the fundamental resonance frequency of the microcantilever. We show a significant increase in signal to noise ratio when cantilever motion is observed at the paddle for AFM systems that are not limited by thermal noise. Also, any effects due to the excitation of the second eigenmode were decoupled by locating the paddle at the node of the second eigenmode. We use these probes for higher harmonic imaging in amplitude modulated AFM (AM-AFM) on a standard polymer blend made of polystyrene and low density polyethylene. We demonstrate significantly improved contrast in higher harmonic images when observing cantilever motion at the paddle. Thus this microcantilever design can improve significantly conventional cantilever performance for dynamic AFM and is compatible with low-cost, high yield microfabrication processes.