Advanced Surfaces: Their Tailoring and Analysis

Abstract

Advanced surfaces constitute an important component in numerous high technologies today, both industrial and medical. In the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology at the ETH-Zürich, many different surface treatments and processes are being examined, and novel techniques for the examination of such surfaces are also being developed. Among the modification methods described in this review are self-assembled monolayers, chemical vapor deposition, and surface functionalization with peptides. Novel analytical approaches include the extension of atomic force microscopy to allow surface-chemical analysis of oxides and polymers with high spatial resolution, and a waveguide technique, adapted to enable the in situ monitoring of protein adsorption on oxides of relevance to implant applications.