AFM study of the mechanical wear phenomena of the polyazomethine with thiophene rings: Tapping mode, phase imaging mode and force spectroscopy

Abstract

Self-assembling molecules, which include polymers, copolymers, dendrimers, and hydrogen bonded complexes are widely studied for their great potential as advanced functional materials. This article presents an atomic force microscopy (AFM) study of polyazomethine with thiophene rings and ester groups (PAZ-Th). The specific morphological and mechanical properties of the polymer, such as ordered structures, as well as energy dissipation in scanning the tip-surface system related to those structures were found by using various AFM measurement techniques such as tapping mode, phase imaging mode and force spectroscopy. Moreover, changes in the long-range and short-range tip-sample interactions were observed by utilizing force spectroscopy mode. In addition, for the investigated polymer self-organized fiber-like structures showing mechanical wear properties were observed.