Investigation of biopolymer networks by means of AFM

Natural hydrogel alginate was investigated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) to gain microscale information on the morphological and rheological properties of the biopolymer network cross-linked by various cations. Local rheological properties of the gels measured by force spectroscopy gave correlation between increasing ion selectivity and increasing polymer elasticity. Adhesive forces acting between the surface of the gel and the probe, and also the intrinsic rheological properties of bulk polymers affect the microscopical image formation.