Microgel particles have use in drug delivery devices, cosmetics, and biosensors. When microgels are crosslinked to a surface, they are expected to spread according to their stiffness, which is tuned by modifying crosslinking agent concentration during synthesis. In this research, the extent of particle spreading of both soft and stiff microgels on flat surfaces was measured and quantified. The stiffness of the microgel particles varied by synthesizing microgels with either 0% n,n’methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) crosslinking agent or 2% BIS, where the 0% BIS microgels are expected to spread more than the 2% BIS particles. Diameter and height are variables that are indicators of particle spreading. Both of these parameters were measured using optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). These parameters were extracted and quantified by performing image analysis on AFM and optical microscope images obtained. Computational measurements were made by using an in-house MATLAB script, tailored to extract diameter and height. These quantified results compliment our qualitative analysis, obtained from performing rough estimates of diameter and height, using the tools available on the microscope software. These measurements will aid in our investigation of the interfacial properties between microgels and flat surfaces, for future biosensor design.
