*2.5. Atomic Force Microscopy*

Topography images of the coated and uncoated stainless steel 316L substrates were recorded at room temperature, using a PicoView 1.14.4 software (Woburn, MA, USA), at 10 <sup>μ</sup>m2, 1024 × <sup>1024</sup> pixels, and 0.84 line/s via an Agilent Technologies 5600LS atomic force microscopy (AFM, Santa Clara, CA, USA) instrument, equipped with a 90 μm N9521A multipurpose scanner, in tapping mode. NANOSENSORSTM silicon tips (type: PPP-CONTPt-20; resonance frequency 6–21 kHz) were employed for the characterisation. Data analysis was performed, with a Pico Image Basic 6.2 software (Chandler, AZ, USA), via first enabling the gaussian filter with 0.25 μm2 cut-off feature, for the background corrections, then having the software calculate the main height parameters and particles height distribution of the samples.
