Simultaneous Nanomechanical and Electrochemical Mapping: Combining Peak Force Tapping Atomic Force Microscopy with Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

Soft electronic devices play a crucial role in, e.g., neural implants as stimulating electrodes, transducers for biosensors, or selective drug-delivery. Because of their elasticity, they can easily adapt to their environment and prevent immunoreactions leading to an overall improved long-term performance. In addition, flexible electronic devices such as stretchable displays will be increasingly used in everyday life, e.g, for so-called electronic wearables. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a versatile tool to characterize these micro- and nanostructured devices in terms of their topography. Using advanced imaging techniques such as peak force tapping (PFT), nanomechanical properties including adhesion, deformation, and Young's modulus can be simultaneously mapped along with surface features. However, conventional AFM provides limited laterally resolved information on electrical or electrochemical properties such as the activity of an electrode array. In this study, we present the first combination of AFM with scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) in PFT mode, thereby offering spatially correlated electrochemical and nanomechanical information paired with high-resolution topographical data under force control (QNM-AFM-SECM). The versatility of this combined scanning probe approach is demonstrated by mapping topographical, electrochemical, and nanomechanical properties of gold microelectrodes and of gold electrodes patterned onto polydimethylsiloxane.