The study of soft particle deformation is of paramount importance for the advancement of fundamental colloidal science as well as its biomedical applications, particularly in drug delivery and cell mechanics/adhesion. Recent developments of both theoretical modelling and experimental techniques have made it possible to measure the deformation behaviour of a single micro-/nano-particle under both adhesive and non-adhesive deformation and, therefore, to facilitate the determination of its mechanical and interfacial properties. This review aims to introduce several modern experimental techniques, such as atomic force microscopy, the micro-compression method and reflectance interference contrast microscopy, and a number of theoretical models, which have been applied to characterize the mechanical and interfacial properties of the soft particles in a quantitative manner. More specifically, their recent applications to biomimetic/biological particles or vesicles, which normally inherit non-linear elasticity and inhomogeneous structure, will also be reviewed.
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Kuo‐Kang Liu (2006) studied this question.
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