Tag Archives: AFM Tips

Science & Technology

Signal Origin of Electrochemical Strain Microscopy and Link to Local Chemical Distribution in Solid State Electrolytes

Solid state electrolytes (SSEs) are interesting materials that could potentially replace the currently used organic electrolytes in lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). *

Electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM), a research technique based on atomic force microscopy (AFM), was developed to locally probe ion movement in electrodes based on electro-chemo-mechanical coupling measure through the AFM cantilever deflection. It can be used to characterize Li-ion mobility in energy materials with extremely high spatial resolution. *

The main challenge with ESM is its nonquantitative nature due to complex AFM cantilever dynamics in contact mode when performed on resonance as well as signal contribution that are not necessarily related to ions such as electrostatic forces.*

In the article “ Signal Origin of Electrochemical Strain Microscopy and Link to Local Chemical Distribution in Solid State Electrolytes “ Nino Schön, Roland Schierholz, Stephen Jesse, Shicheng Yu, Rüdiger‐A. Eichel, Nina Balke and Florian Hausen investigate the exact signal formation process of electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM) when it is applied on sodium super ionic conductor (NASCIO)-type solid state electrolytes containing Na- and Li-ions.*

In their research the authors correlatively use various scanning probe microscopy (SPM) based microscopy techniques together with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy ( EDX ) at identical positions of the solid state electrolyte LATP.*

They find that changes in the dielectric properties are responsible for the detected contrast in the deflection of the AFM cantilever instead of a physical volume change as a result of Vegard’s Law. The AFM cantilever response is strongly reduced in areas of high sodium content which is attributed to a reduction of the AFM tip-sample capacitance in comparison with areas with high lithium content.*

This is the first time a direct link between electrostatic forces in contact mode and local chemical information is demonstrated on SSEs. The results presented in the article open up the possibility to learn more since dielectric properties are sensitive to subtle changes in local chemical composition.*

NANOSENSORS conductive Platinum-Iridium coated PointProbe® Plus PPP-EFM AFM probes were primarily used in the research for this article.

Figure 1 from Nino Schön et al. «Signal Origin of Electrochemical Strain Microscopy and Link to Local Chemical Distribution in Solid State Electrolytes”: a) Topography, b) deflection error, and c) corresponding cantilever deflection change (Dac) map of a 30 µm × 30 µm area of LATP. d) Noncontact EFM amplitude map in the same area. NANOSENSORS conductive platinum-iridium coated PointProbe Plus PPP-EFM AFM probes were used.
Figure 1 from Nino Schön et al. «Signal Origin of Electrochemical Strain Microscopy and Link to Local Chemical Distribution in Solid State Electrolytes”:
a) Topography, b) deflection error, and c) corresponding cantilever deflection change (Dac) map of a 30 µm × 30 µm area of LATP. d) Noncontact EFM amplitude map in the same area.

*Nino Schön, Roland Schierholz, Stephen Jesse, Shicheng Yu, Rüdiger‐A. Eichel, Nina Balke, Florian Hausen
Signal Origin of Electrochemical Strain Microscopy and Link to Local Chemical Distribution in Solid State Electrolytes
Small Methods, Early View, Online Version of Record before inclusion in an issue 2001279
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202001279

Please follow this external link to read the full article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smtd.202001279

Open Access The article “Signal Origin of Electrochemical Strain Microscopy and Link to Local Chemical Distribution in Solid State Electrolytes” by Nino Schön, Roland Schierholz, Stephen Jesse, Shicheng Yu, Rüdiger‐A. Eichel, Nina Balke, Florian Hausen 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/.

Science & Technology

Cytoskeletal disorganization underlies PABPN1-mediated myogenic disability

Muscle wasting is connected with changes in various cellular mechanisms that influence protein homeostasis, transcription, protein acetylation and different metabolic pathways. *

Scientific studies have shown that reduced levels of polyadenylation binding protein 1 ( PABPN1 , a multifactorial regulator of mRNA processing ) cause muscle wasting, including muscle atrophy, extracellular matrix thickening, myofiber typing transitions and central nucleation. *

However, the cellular mechanisms behind PABPN1-mediated muscle wasting are not fully understood. *

In the article “Cytoskeletal disorganization underlies PABPN1-mediated myogenic disability” Cyriel Sebastiaan Olie, Erik van der Wal, Cikes Domagoj, Loes Maton, Jessica C. de Greef, I.-Hsuan Lin, Yi-Fan Chen, Elsayad Kareem, Josef M. Penninger, Benedikt M. Kessler and Vered Raz examine the cytoskeletal auxiliary changes that are dependent on PABPN1 levels using 2D and 3D models, and investigate how these affect muscle wasting. *

They suggest that poor cytoskeletal mechanical features are caused by altered expression levels of cytoskeletal proteins and contribute to muscle wasting and atrophy. *

For the measurements of cell-mechanics properties in control and shPAB cells ( muscle cells with reduced PABPN1 levels ) the authors used Brillouin Light Scattering Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy. *

NANOSENSORS™ uniqprobe qp-BioAC ( CB3 ) AFM probes were used in the quantitative imaging where a force curve is applied at each point. The analyzed area of each cell was 5 µm × 5 µm (64 × 64 pixels) with an approach speed of 35 µm/s (3.4 ms/pixel), and applied forces of up to 118 pN. *

Figure 4 from “Cytoskeletal disorganization underlies PABPN1-mediated myogenic disability” by Cyriel Sebastiaan Olie et al. Disrupted cytoskeletal spatial organization in shPAB human muscle cell cultures. A Representative images of control and shPAB human muscle cell cultures, stained with antibodies to tubulin and actin, and the actin filaments were visualized with actin-GFP. B Tubulin staining in control and shPAB myoblast cell cultures after DMSO, 100 nM nocodazole or 25 nM paclitaxel treatment for 2 h. Scale bar is 25 µm. C Measurements of cell-mechanics properties in control and shPAB cells using the Brillouin Light Scattering Microscopy (Ci) or the Atomic Force Microscopy (Cii). Measurements were carried out in myoblasts; every dot represents the median from 1000 measurements in a cell. Cell stiffness is measured by GHz, and the young modulus reports the cell surface tension. Averages and standard deviations are from N = 15 cells. Statistical significance was calculated with the student’s t-test. NANOSENSORS uniqprobe qp-BioAC ( CB3 ) AFM probes were used in the quantitative imaging of cell-mechanics properties.
Figure 4 from “Cytoskeletal disorganization underlies PABPN1-mediated myogenic disability” by Cyriel Sebastiaan Olie et al.
 Disrupted cytoskeletal spatial organization in shPAB human muscle cell cultures. A Representative images of control and shPAB human muscle cell cultures, stained with antibodies to tubulin and actin, and the actin filaments were visualized with actin-GFP. B Tubulin staining in control and shPAB myoblast cell cultures after DMSO, 100 nM nocodazole or 25 nM paclitaxel treatment for 2 h. Scale bar is 25 µm. C Measurements of cell-mechanics properties in control and shPAB cells using the Brillouin Light Scattering Microscopy (Ci) or the Atomic Force Microscopy (Cii). Measurements were carried out in myoblasts; every dot represents the median from 1000 measurements in a cell. Cell stiffness is measured by GHz, and the young modulus reports the cell surface tension. Averages and standard deviations are from N = 15 cells. Statistical significance was calculated with the student’s t-test.

*Cyriel Sebastiaan Olie, Erik van der Wal, Cikes Domagoj, Loes Maton, Jessica C. de Greef, I.-Hsuan Lin, Yi-Fan Chen, Elsayad Kareem, Josef M. Penninger, Benedikt M. Kessler & Vered Raz
Cytoskeletal disorganization underlies PABPN1-mediated myogenic disability
Nature Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 17621 (2020)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-74676-8

Please follow this external link to read the full article https://rdcu.be/ceyJ4

Open Access: The article “Cytoskeletal disorganization underlies PABPN1-mediated myogenic disability” by Cyriel Sebastiaan Olie, Erik van der Wal, Cikes Domagoj, Loes Maton, Jessica C. de Greef, I.-Hsuan Lin, Yi-Fan Chen, Elsayad Kareem, Josef M. Penninger, Benedikt M. Kessler & Vered Raz 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/.