Nanoscale electric polarizability of ultrathin biolayers on insulating substrates by electrostatic force microscopy

Nanoscale. 2015 Nov 21;7(43):18327-36. doi: 10.1039/c5nr04983k.

Abstract

We measured and quantified the local electric polarization properties of ultrathin (∼5 nm) biolayers on mm-thick mica substrates. We achieved it by scanning a sharp conductive tip (<10 nm radius) of an electrostatic force microscope over the biolayers and quantifying sub-picoNewton electric polarization forces with a sharp-tip model implemented using finite-element numerical calculations. We obtained relative dielectric constants εr = 3.3, 2.4 and 1.9 for bacteriorhodopsin, dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) and cholesterol layers, chosen as representative of the main cell membrane components, with an error below 10% and a spatial resolution down to ∼50 nm. The ability of using insulating substrates common in biophysics research, such as mica or glass, instead of metallic substrates, offers both a general platform to determine the dielectric properties of biolayers and a wider compatibility with other characterization techniques, such as optical microscopy. This opens up new possibilities for biolayer research at the nanoscale, including nanoscale label-free composition mapping.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cholesterol / chemistry*
  • Lipid Bilayers / chemistry*
  • Microscopy / methods*
  • Phosphatidylcholines / chemistry*
  • Static Electricity*

Substances

  • Lipid Bilayers
  • Phosphatidylcholines
  • Cholesterol
  • 1,2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine