It is the second day of #MNE2019. Have you already had a chance to meet our CEO Manfred Detterbeck there and discuss the many applications that are possible using our #AFMprobes for #AtomicForceMicroscopy?
Manfred Detterbeck is attending the 45th International Conference on Micro & Nano Engineering this week. You too?
The mechanical properties and structural
organization of membranes determine the functional state of red blood cells
(RBCs). Deformability is one of the key physiological and biophysical
indicators of RBC. Changes of the mechanical characteristics of cell membranes
can lead to a decrease in the rate of capillary blood flow and to development
of stagnant phenomena in the microcirculation, and it can also reduce the
amount of oxygen delivered to the tissues.*
In the article “Nonlinear Biomechanical Characteristics of Deep Deformation of Native RBC Membranes in Normal State and under Modifier Action” Elena Kozlova, Aleksandr Chernysh, Ekaterina Manchenko, Viktoria Sergunova and Viktor Moroz describe how they evaluated the ability of membranes of native human red blood cells (RBCs) to bend into the cell to a depth comparable in size with physiological deformations using the methods of atomic force microscopy ( AFM ) and atomic force spectroscopy ( AFS ).*
As a true estimation of the elastic properties of RBC membranes can be obtained only by measurement of native cell properties the aim of the experiments was to study nonlinear mechanical characteristics of deep deformation of native RBC membranes in normal state and under the action of modifiers, in vitro to make sure that the result would be the closest to the characteristics of a living biological object.*
Figure 5.2. (c) from “Nonlinear Biomechanical Characteristics of Deep Deformation of Native RBC Membranes in Normal State and under Modifier Action “ by Elena Kozlova et al.: Bending of membranes under the action of force F for stiff (1) and soft (2) membranes; F is the force acting on the membrane from the probe, Z is the vertical displacement of the piezoscanner, h is the depth of the membrane bending into RBC, PBS is the phosphate buffer solution, and rdis the bending radius of the membrane.
*Elena Kozlova, Aleksandr Chernysh, Ekaterina Manchenko, Viktoria Sergunova, and Viktor Moroz Nonlinear Biomechanical Characteristics of Deep Deformation of Native RBC Membranes in Normal State and under Modifier Action Scanning, Volume 2018, Article ID 1810585, 13 pages Doi: https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1810585
Open Access
The article « Nonlinear Biomechanical Characteristics of Deep Deformation of
Native RBC Membranes in Normal State and under Modifier Action ” by Elena
Kozlova, Aleksandr Chernysh, Ekaterina Manchenko, Viktoria Sergunova, and
Viktor Moroz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction
in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original
author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless
indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need
to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this
license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The properties and performance of
polycrystalline materials depend critically on the properties of their grain
boundaries.*
In the article “Direct evidence for grain boundary
passivation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride post-deposition
treatments “ Nicoleta Nicoara, Roby Manaligod, Philip Jackson, Dimitrios
Hariskos, Wolfram Witte, Giovanna Sozzi, Roberto Menozzi and Sascha Sadewasser investigate the direct evidence for grain boundary passivation in
Cu(in,GA)Se2 solar cells through
alkali-fluoride treatment. They present a KPFM study on the electronic GB
properties in CIGSe deposited by co-evaporation and compare the effect of KF-,
RbF-, and CsF-PDT.*
Their results suggest that heavier alkali elements might lead to better passivation by reducing the density of charged defects and increasing the formation of secondary phases at grain boundaries.*
The KPFM measurements for the study were carried out with platinum iridium coated NANOSENSORS™ PointProbe® Plus PPP-NCLPt AFM probes.*
Figure 1 from “Direct evidence for grain boundary passivation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride post-deposition treatments” by S. Sadewasser et al.: Representative KPFM results on annealed and rinsed AlkF-PDT CIGSe absorbers. From left to right the data correspond to KF-, RbF-, and CsF-PDT. a–c Topography images, d–f simultaneously acquired work function maps measured under dark conditions, and g histograms extracted from the work function maps; dashed lines indicate Gaussian fits and the bars with the numbers the spread at 1/e of the peak maximum
*Nicoleta Nicoara, Roby Manaligod, Philip Jackson, Dimitrios Hariskos, Wolfram Witte, Giovanna Sozzi, Roberto Menozzi, Sascha Sadewasser Direct evidence for grain boundary passivation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride post-deposition treatments Nature Communications, volume 10, Article number: 3980 (2019) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11996-y
Open
Access The article « Direct evidence for grain boundary passivation
in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells through alkali-fluoride post-deposition treatments”
by Nicoleta Nicoara, Roby Manaligod, Philip Jackson, Dimitrios Hariskos,
Wolfram Witte, Giovanna Sozzi, Roberto Menozzi and Sascha Sadewasser is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution
and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative
Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third
party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons
license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If
material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your
intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted
use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To
view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.