title: PeakForce QNM AFM study of chitin-silica hybrid films.
abstract: Chitin-silica hybrid thin films, prepared through the colloidal self-assembly of chitin nanorods and siloxane oligomers, have been studied for the first time by PeakForce QNM AFM mode to explore their structure and mechanical behaviour. The change in structure and mechanical properties of chitin-silica hybrids is mainly driven by the relative quantities in chitin nanorods and silica, expressed as the chitin volume fraction ϕchi. The coating of the chitin polysaccharide by silica leads to an increase of the nanorods diameter and films surface roughness at small ϕchivalues. The DMT (Derjaguin-Muller-Toporov) modulus increased both at small ϕchidue to a large amount of silica and at very high ϕchi→1 due to an incomplete tip penetration between nanorods. The local parallel orientation of nanorods observed at different ϕchivalues resulted in a modulus increase due to an enhancement of the cohesion between nanorods.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, INSA Lyon, UMR CNRS 5223, IMP Ingénierie des Matériaux Polymères, F-69621 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Georgiy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Smolyakov
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, INSA Lyon, UMR CNRS 5223, IMP Ingénierie des Matériaux Polymères, F-69621 Villeurbanne, France. Electronic address: sebastien.pruvost@insa-lyon.fr.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pruvost
authors.affiliation: Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, UMR 5253 ENSCM/UM/CNRS, 34296 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, UMR 5253 ENSCM/UM/CNRS, 34296 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.affiliation: Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, UMR 5253 ENSCM/UM/CNRS, 34296 Montpellier, France; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research University, 75014 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Belamie
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, INSA Lyon, UMR CNRS 5223, IMP Ingénierie des Matériaux Polymères, F-69621 Villeurbanne, France. Electronic address: jannick.duchet@insa-lyon.fr.
authors.forename: Jannick
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duchet-Rumeau
keywords: AFM; Chitin; Hybrid nanocomposites; Local mechanical characterization; Sol-gel process; Thin film