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Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to study the mechanical properties of the pollen wall. An atomic force microscope is a scanning probe microscope used to characterize the micro- and nano-metric surface of a sample. Two AFM modes were used. The first mode is the most used AFM mode, called tapping mode. This mode was used to measured the topography of the sample surface. The second mode is a nano-mechanical mode used to understand the mechanical properties of the surface samples. The chosen mode is the contact mode force map. This mode allows us to perform force curves on different points of the sample surface. During a force curve measurement, the cantilever is ramped toward and then away from the sample surface while the forces that it experienced are recorded. In this manner phenomena such as adhesion, sample viscosity and strength can be studied. This protocol explains how to obtain AFM data from bisaccate pollen samples, such as those obtained in the article: "A biological nano-foam: the wall of coniferous bisaccate pollen". |
