Amplitude response of conical multiwalled carbon nanotube probes for atomic force microscopy

Xiao Hu; Hang Wei; Ya Deng; Xiannian Chi; Jia Liu; Junyi Yue; Zhisheng Peng; Jinzhong Cai; Peng Jiang; Lianfeng Sun

doi:10.1039/c8ra08683d

Amplitude response of conical multiwalled carbon nanotube probes for atomic force microscopy

RSC Adv. 2019 Jan 2;9(1):429-434. doi: 10.1039/c8ra08683d. eCollection 2018 Dec 19.

Authors

Xiao Hu^{1

2}, Hang Wei^{1

2}, Ya Deng^{1

2}, Xiannian Chi^{1

2}, Jia Liu^{1

2}, Junyi Yue^{1

2}, Zhisheng Peng^{1

2}, Jinzhong Cai^{1

2}, Peng Jiang¹, Lianfeng Sun¹

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology Beijing 100190 China slf@nanoctr.cn pjiang@nanoctr.cn.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China.

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are considered as great candidates for atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes because of their high aspect ratio and outstanding mechanical properties. In this work, we report that a conical AFM probe can be fabricated with arc discharge prepared multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with an individual MWCNT at the apex by dielectrophoresis. The amplitude-displacement curve of the conical MWCNT probe demonstrates that this structure can remain stable until the force exerted on it increases to 14.0 ± 1.5 nN (nanonewton). Meanwhile, the conical MWCNT probes are able to resolve complex structure with high aspect ratio compared to commercial AFM probes, suggesting great potential for various AFM applications.