Tis book concentrates on atomic force microscopy (AFM), a method recently - veloped to study the surfaces of synthetic polymeric membranes. AFM is becoming a very important tool for the characterization of synthetic polymeric membranes. Te development of membranes of improved performance depends on the exact kn- ledge of the morphology of a thin selective layer that exists at the surface of the m- brane. Te control of the morphology of the selective layer is crucial for the design of synthetic polymeric membranes. With a relatively short history of only twen- ?ve years, AFM has ?rmly...