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Probing single ions in aqueous solutions with atomic force microscopy [dataset] Open Access

Over the last decades, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has developed into a tool capable of mapping the equilibrium 3-dimensional organisation of liquid molecules at the interface with solids using a vibrating tip. While very successful for pure liquids, measurements in solutions containing dissolved molecules or ions can be more challenging due to the AFM tip can unwittingly removing single adsorbates during the measurement. This issue, is particularly important for high-resolution measurements in liquid, potentially leading to adsorbed species becoming effectively invisible to the AFM despite it resolving details of the smaller liquid molecules. Here we explore this issue systematically on a known system: the mica-water interface in aqueous solutions of 5mM RbCl, KCl, NaCl, LiCl and 2mM CaCl2, and pure water as a reference. The different metal cations all adsorb to the interface, but with different strength and hydration states. We show that although atomic-level resolution of the hydrated interface can always be achieved, resolving the adsorbed ions depends on the tip vibration amplitude and imaging conditions. Measurements conducted at smaller amplitude are dominated by the equilibrium water molecular arrangement, with ionic effects becoming more prominent at larger amplitudes. This is particularly clear for ions such as Rb+ which adsorb further from the interface compared to ions with higher charge density. The results are discussed for each ion in terms of hydration state and the measured conservative and dissipative interactions of the measuring tip.

Descriptions

Resource type

Dataset

Contributors

Creator: Voitchovsky, Kislon ¹
Contact person: Voitchovsky, Kislon ¹
Data collector: Voitchovsky, Kislon ¹
Data curator: Voitchovsky, Kislon ¹
Contact person: Cafolla, Clodomiro ¹
Data collector: Cafolla, Clodomiro ¹

¹ Durham University

Funder

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Research methods

Atomic Force Microscopy

Other description

Chiefly research data in IBW format, a proprietary format developed by WaveMetrics.

Keyword

atomic force microscopy
metal ions
mica
solid-liquid interfaces
water

Subject

Atomic force microscopy

Location

Language

Cited in

Identifier

ark:/32150/r1bv73c054q
doi:10.15128/r1bv73c054q

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY)

Publisher

Durham University

Date Created

File Details

Depositor

K.D. Voitchovsky

Date Uploaded

7 September 2026, 12:09:34

Date Modified

8 September 2026, 13:09:30

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Characterization

File format: zip (ZIP Format)

Mime type: application/zip

File size: 186928803

Last modified: 2026:09:08 13:00:55+01:00

Filename: HighResolution_AFM_imaging_single_ions-r1bv73c054q-version1.zip

Original checksum: cb4265a0a08bc41d6ae096bf4555d406