Researchers in academia and industry who are interested in techniques
for measuring intermolecular forces will find this an essential text. It
presents a review of modern force spectroscopy, including fundamentals
of intermolecular forces, technical aspects of the force measurements,
and practical applications. The handbook begins with a review of the
fundamental physics of loading single and multiple chemical bonds on the
nanometer scale. It contains a discussion of thermodynamic and kinetic
models of binding forces and dissipation effects in nanoscale molecular
contacts, covers practical aspects of modern single-molecule level
techniques, and concludes with applications of force spectroscopy to
chemical and biological processes. Computer modeling of force
spectroscopy experiments is also addressed.