Piezoelectricity of green carp scales

Today is Children’s Day in Japan and many mulit-colored carp-shaped koinobori streamers will flutter in the wind.

So it is the perfect day to share the publication “Piezoelectricity of green carp scales” by Y. Jiang et al. with you.

Piezoelectricity takes part in multiple important functions and processes in biomaterials often vital to the survival of organisms. In their publication , “Piezoelectricity of green carp scales” Y. Jiang et al. investigate the piezoelectric properties of fish scales of green carp by directly examining their morphology at nanometer levels. From the clear distinctions between the composition of the inner and outer surfaces of the scales that could be found, the authors identified the piezoelectricity to originate from the presence of hydroxyapatite which only exists on the surface of the fish scales.*

koinobori - carp streamers on children's day in Matsumoto Japan
koinobori – carp streamers in Matsumoto Japan

These findings reveal a different mechanism of how green carp are sensitive to their surroundings and should be helpful to studies related to the electromechanical properties of marine life and the development of bio-inspired materials. As easily accessible natural polymers, fish scales can be employed as highly sensitive piezoelectric materials in high sensitive and high speed devices as well as be exploited for invasive diagnostics and other biomedical implications.*

For the harmonic responses of both 1st order and 2nd order described in this publication, NanoWorld Arrow-CONTPt AFM probes were used.

FIG. 6 from “Piezoelectricity of green carp scales “ by H. Y. Jiang et al.: First and second harmonic responses of (a) domain I and (b) domain IV. The straight line fitting for the amplitude of first harmonic response of (c) domain I and (d) domain IV by applying a series of bias. NanoWorld Arrow-CONTPt AFM probes were used.
FIG. 6 from “Piezoelectricity of green carp scales “ by H. Y. Jiang et al.: First and second harmonic responses of (a) domain I and (b) domain IV. The straight line fitting for the amplitude of first harmonic response of (c) domain I and (d) domain IV by applying a series of bias.

*Y. Jiang, F. Yen, C. W. Huang, R. B. Mei, and L. Chen
Piezoelectricity of green carp scales
AIP Advances 7, 045215 (2017)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4979503

Please follow this external link to access the full article: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.4979503

Open Access The article “Piezoelectricity of green carp scales” by Y. Jiang, F. Yen, C. W. Huang, R. B. Mei and L. Chen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Ferroelectric domains and phase transition of sol-gel processed epitaxial Sm-doped BiFeO3 (001) thin films

Read how Nanoworld Arrow-EFM AFM probes were used in the paper “Ferroelectric domains and phase transition of sol-gel processed epitaxial Sm-doped BiFeO3 (001) thin films” in which the authors Zhen Zhou, Wie Sun, Zhenyu Liao, Shuai Ning, Jing Zhu and Jing-Feng Li:

  • prepared 12% Sm-doped BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films on Nb-doped SrTiO3 (001) substrate via a sol-gel method
  • used PFM (piezoresponse force microscopy) to characterize the in-situ ferroelectric domain evolution from room temperature to 200 °C
  • illustrated a phase transition from ferroelectric to antiferroelectric phase by SS-PFM and found a significant piezoelectric response at the phase boundary

Their work revealed the origin of the high piezoresponse of Sm-doped BiFeO3 thin films at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB).*

A PtIr-coated NanoWorld Arrow-EFM cantilever with a nominal spring constant of 2.8 N/m and a typical resonant frequency of 75 kHz was used in all imaging modes mentioned in the article.

Figure 3 from “Ferroelectric domains and phase transition of sol-gel processed epitaxial Sm-doped BiFeO3 (001) thin films” by Zhen Zhou et al. : PFM scanning results of the sample at 20 °C, 80 °C, 140 °C and 200 °C, (a)-(d) out-of-plane phase, (e)-(h) out-of-plane amplitude, (i)-(l) in-plane phase, and (m)-(p) in-plane amplitude. NanoWorld Arrow-EFM AFM probes were used in all imaging modes.
Figure 3 from “Ferroelectric domains and phase transition of sol-gel processed epitaxial Sm-doped BiFeO3 (001) thin films” by Zhen Zhou et al. : PFM scanning results of the sample at 20 °C, 80 °C, 140 °C and 200 °C, (a)-(d) out-of-plane phase, (e)-(h) out-of-plane amplitude, (i)-(l) in-plane phase, and (m)-(p) in-plane amplitude.

 
 
 
 
 
 
             
*Zhen Zhou, Wie Sun, Zhenyu Liao, Shuai Ning, Jing Zhu, Jing-Feng Li
Ferroelectric domains and phase transition of sol-gel processed epitaxial Sm-doped BiFeO3 (001) thin films

Journal of Materiomics, Volume 4, Issue 1, March 2018, Pages 27-34
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmat.2017.11.002

Please follow this external link if you would like to read the full article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352847817300631

Open Access The article “Ferroelectric domains and phase transition of sol-gel processed epitaxial Sm-doped BiFeO3 (001) thin films” by Zhen Zhou, Wie Sun, Zhenyu Liao, Shuai Ning, Jing Zhu and Jing-Feng Li is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

 

Zoom zoom: High speed AFM imaging

The NanoWorld Arrow UHF was mentioned in this blog article on Microscopy and Analysis http://www.microscopy-analysis.com/blog/blog-articles/zoom-zoom-high-speed-afm-imaging

NanoWorld Arrow UHF AFM tip for high speed atomic force microscopy
3D view of NanoWorld Arrow UHF AFM tip for high speed AFM