Infrared vibrational spectroscopy is a powerful tool for chemical identification, however most infrared spectroscopic techniques usually do not obtain spatially resolved chemical information at a nanoscopic level due to the fact that they are diffraction limited. On the other hand, a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) can reveal features with spatial resolution less than the diffraction limit because it relies on near-field probing instead of optical focusing. Using an apertureless approach that is based on atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever tip ineracting with a infrared source of sufficient intensity, spatially resolved chemical information as well as conventional topographic information can be obtained. Critical to this is the near-field interaction of the AFM cantilever tip and the surface in the presence of an electromagnetic field. Modeling of this interaction will show that this approach can result in parctical device for nanoscale chemical imaging.