Determination of hydration film thickness using atomic force microscopy

Dispersion of a solid particle in water may lead to the formation of hydration film on the particle surface, which can strongly increase the repulsive force between the particles and thus strongly affect the stability of dispersions. The hydration film thickness, which varies with the variation of property of suspension particles, is one of the most important parameters of hydration film, and is also one of the most difficult parameters that can be measured accurately. In this paper, a method, based on force-distance curve of atomic force microscopy, for determining the hydration film thickness of particles is developed. The method utilizes the difference of cantilever deflection before, between and after penetrating the hydration films between tip and sample, which reflect the difference of slope on the force-distance curve. 3 samples, mica, glass and stainless steel, were used for hydration thickness determination, and the results show that the hydration film thickness between silicon tip and mica, glass and stainless steel are 30.0±2.0, 29.0±1.0 and 32.5±2.5 nm, respectively.