Surfaces and Interface Science provides a comprehensive introduction to the science behind surface and interface phenomena. Starting from the concept of an interface as the contact region between an object and its surrounding medium, the book explores how bulk property perturbations create surface characteristics. It integrates principles of physics and chemistry to explain processes such as wetting, nucleation, catalysis, and surface reconstruction, alongside phenomena like surface tension, adhesion, and adsorption. Characterization techniques, including spectroscopy, contact angle, and thermal desorption, are critically examined. Written by experts with decades of experience, this text is ideal for advanced students and researchers seeking a foundational resource with broad applications in biomaterials, microelectronics, and polymer science.
**Key features: **
- First book on the scientific principles underlying the field of surfaces and interfaces
- Illustrates how basic concepts, including kinetics, thermodynamics and chemical bonding, are applied in surface reconstruction, wetting, nucleation and catalysis
- Explains phenomena including surface tension, surface phase equilibria, adhesion and adsorption
- Discusses the power and limitations of surface characterization techniques, including spectroscopic characterization, contact angle and thermal desorption
- Includes problems, sidebars and exercises for students
- Written by highly experienced authors, who have worked in the field of surface and interface science for a combined total of more than 80 years
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgments
Authors biographies
1 Introduction to interfaces
2 Structure and defects of periodically arranged materials—background
3 Surface structure
4 Surface and interface thermodynamics
5 Surface dynamics
6 Electrical properties and interactions at surfaces
7 Surface chemical bonding
8 Catalysis
9 Forces at the nanoscale—controlling interactions between nano-objects
About the Author :
David L. Allara is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the departments of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. In 1969, he joined the technical staff at Bell Laboratories and became a research manager at Bell Communications Research in 1984. He joined Penn State in 1987. Among his awards, Allara has received the Arthur Adamson Award from the American Chemical Society, an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Linkoping University, and he is a Fellow of The American Association for The Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Robert L. Opila is a Professor in the Materials Science Department at the University of Delaware. He joined Bell Laboratories, where he studied the role of surfaces and interfaces in electronic and photonic materials and devices. He was named Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and promoted to Technical Supervisor. He joined the University of Delaware in 2002 and his research now includes photovoltaic and thermoelectric materials as well as semiconductor processing. Opila is a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society and an editor of Applied Surface Science, and has completed terms as Fulbright Fellow at Bilkent University in Turkey, and as Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of New South Wales.
