Atomic Force Microscopy Meets Biophysics, Bioengineering, Chemistry, and Materials Science.

Briefly, herein the use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in the characterization of molecules and (bioengineered) materials related to chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, and environmental science and biotechnology is reviewed. First, the basic operations of standard AFM, Kelvin probe force microscopy, electrochemical AFM, and tip-enhanced Raman microscopy are described. Second, several applications of these techniques to the characterization of single molecules, polymers, biological membranes, films, cells, hydrogels, catalytic processes, and semiconductors are provided and discussed.