Hydration Dynamics and the Future of Small-Amplitude AFM Imaging in Air

Here, we discuss the effects that the dynamics of the hydration layer and other variables, such as the tip radius, have on the availability of imaging regimes in dynamic AFM—including multifrequency AFM. Since small amplitudes are required for high-resolution imaging, we focus on these cases. It is possible to fully immerse a sharp tip under the hydration layer and image with amplitudes similar to or smaller than the height of the hydration layer, i.e., ~1 nm. When mica or HOPG surfaces are only cleaved, molecules adhere to their surfaces, and reaching a thermodynamically stable state for imaging might take hours. During these first hours, different possibilities for imaging emerge and change, implying that these conditions must be considered and reported when imaging.

Skin hydration dynamics investigated by electrical impedance techniques in vivo and in vitro

Skin is easily accessible for transdermal drug delivery and also attractive for biomarker sampling. These applications are strongly influenced by hydration where elevated hydration generally leads to increased skin permeability. Thus, favorable transdermal delivery and extraction conditions can be easily obtained by exploiting elevated skin hydration. Here, we provide a detailed in vivo and in vitro investigation of the skin hydration dynamics using three techniques based on electrical impedance spectroscopy. Good correlation between in vivo and in vitro results is demonstrated, which implies that simple but realistic in vitro models can be used for further studies related to skin hydration (e.g., cosmetic testing). Importantly, the results show that hydration proceeds in two stages. Firstly, hydration between 5 and 10 min results in a drastic skin impedance change, which is interpreted as filling of superficial voids in skin with conducting electrolyte solution. Secondly, a subtle impedance change is observed over time, which is interpreted as leveling of the water gradient across skin leading to structural relaxation/changes of the macromolecular skin barrier components. With respect to transdermal drug delivery and extraction of biomarkers; 1 h of hydration is suggested to result in beneficial and stable conditions in terms of high skin permeability and extraction efficiency.