Characterization of mechanical properties for the Tobacco Mosaic Virus through metrological Atomic Force Microscopy

The metrological traceability of materials has become one of the most interesting topic for researchers studies and a valid instrument for the reliability of the results of the tests. The definition of new samples and the regulation of industrial measurement instruments and systems require to follow a lot of steps for an accurate calibration. INRiM works for nanostructure tests, exploiting the potential of a metrological Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The first part of this work is essentially based on several kinds of measurements on Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), in order to check if this virus could become an ideal reference material. To do that, it is important to verify its diameter stability and AFM calibration has been done using different type of tips. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to validate a new model for the calculation of mechanical properties, such as the sample’s Young Modulus, comparing all the measurements done in laboratory with Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis. A good evaluation of this method rapresents the attainment of results referable to the international system and a good quality of the measurements could have a good impact on the field of research for systems at the nanoscale.