The atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis was performed using a commercial AFM (Nanotec, Madrid Spain) microscope, measuring in contact mode.
Analyses were conducted using the Park Systems/XE70 microscope in non-contact mode and a cantilever with a force constant equal to 42 N/m.
Another advantage of heating microscope is the specimen not in contact with an external load like push rod in dilatometer at any time.
This is not trivial because most temperature controlled chambers or incubators measure the air temperature and not that of the solution in the sample holder, which is in contact with the microscope most of the time via an optical table.
A scanning probe microscope (Molecular Imaging, Agilent, USA) operated in contact mode was used to observe the patterning of the films and their morphology.
The surfaces with different terminal functional groups were observed using an atomic force microscope (MFP-3D-S, Asylum Research, USA) in contact mode under an air atmosphere.
Even though our device is a multilayer PDMS device, which adds to the complexity of the fabrication, the alignment of the two layers does not require a microscope, and the cells will be in contact with the coverslip, which also allows for high-resolution imaging.
The measurements are carried out with Molecular Imaging's Pico Plus modular scanning probe microscope system (Molecular Imaging Inc., Arizona, USA), in contact mode.
