TY - CONF A1 - Gojani, Ardian A1 - Tobias, Charlie A1 - Hülagü, Deniz A1 - Rurack, Knut A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Toward Determination of the Surface Roughness of Particles from a SEM Image N2 - Welcome to the poster Towards Determination of Surface Roughness from a SEM Image, a contribution from BAM in Berlin, Germany. This work is part of the MamaLoCA project, which aims to develop a biosensor for the detection of mycotoxins in cereals. Biosensors come in a great variety, one of which makes use of microscopic beads produced by homogenous coating of polystyrene microspheres. The beads are functionalized by decorating them with bioreceptors – in our case antibodies – which then specifically react with the analyte – in our case mycotoxins – and emit an electrical or optical signal. The functionalization of the beads depends on the surface roughness because this determines the amount and orientation of binders. In other words, the surface roughness affects the accessibility to the binding sites and influences device sensitivity, hence its quantitative determination is an important step in evaluating the quality of the biosensor in general. The presented solution to the problem of the estimation of surface roughness relies in the repetitive characteristics on the surface of the beads. A SEM image of the bead shows a raspberry like microparticle with a variation of grayscale values, which arise from the secondary electron yield. The principle of the measurement measures the variation of grayscale values along a circumference of a circle centred in the centre of the particle and with an arbitrary radius. The grayscale value variation along the given circumference gives the so-called z-modulation or the lateral profile. By performing Fast Fourier Transform on this profile we obtain the power spectrum as a function of the spatial frequencies through which the grayscales vary. The maximal value for spatial frequency then reveals the most common feature along one given circumference. Surface roughness then is the feature frequency in the spatial domain. This calculation is repeated for several concentric circles with different radii over the particle. The results for the same particle but recorded at two different accelerating voltages show that the applied method has a potential to reveal the roughness. Interpretation of results from an SE InLens SEM image obtained using 3 kV shows that surface roughness is about 21 nm, which is in a good agreement with an alternative method given in a different presentation. The results from the 10 kV are underestimated due to the loss of surface sensitivity on the SE InLens detection at high voltages. In conclusion, this method shows promise in determining quantitatively the surface roughness from a single SEM image and its validation is being sought using 3D SEM images and AFM methods. T2 - Microscopy and Microanalysis 2021 CY - Online Meeting DA - 01.08.2021 KW - MamaLoCA KW - Core-shell particles KW - Electron microscopy KW - Image processing KW - Particle characterisation KW - Roughness KW - Fast Fourier Transform PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-53089 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -