Chemical Force Microscopy: Probing Chemical Origin of Interfacial Forces and Adhesion

Experimental methods of measuring intermolecular interactions have had several recent developments which have improved our understanding of chemical forces. First, they allowed direct exploration of the role that different functionalities, solvents and environmental variables play in shaping the strength of intermolecular interactions. Chemical force microscopy approach, in particular, became an extremely effective tool for exploring the contributions of each of these factors. Second, CFM studies clearly debunked the naive notion that intermolecular interaction strength is determined only by the nature of the interacting groups. These studies showed that the interaction strength between two chemical species must always considered in context of the environment surrounding these species. Third, CFM studies highlighted the critical role solvent plays in shaping intermolecular interactions in condensed phases. Emerging kinetic view of the intermolecular interactions introduced a completely new paradigm for understanding these interactions. Kinetic modeling showed that the measured interactions strength depends not only on the energy landscape of the system, but also on the loading history prior to the bond break-up. This new paradigm refocused our attention to the energy landscape as a fundamental characteristic of the interaction. Moreover, dynamic force spectroscopy, derived from kinetic models, allowed direct characterization of the geometry of the potential energy barrier, while some other methods attempt to probe the equilibrium energy landscape directly. Further investigations of the interactions in different systems, especially interactions between biomolecules, will uncover many interesting characteristics of intermolecular potentials. These studies have the potential to reveal, for the first time, a true picture of the energy landscapes of adhesion processes in complex chemical and biological systems