Surface Chemistry Essentials

Presenting fundamental knowledge of surface science, this concise volume uses solved examples to illustrate basic principles and provide deeper understanding to a broad audience including chemists and engineers working for the first time on surface-related problems. It contains data from real-world examples to stimulate readers to consider both fundamental theory and industrial applications. Drawing on the expertise of a known authority in the field, the book addresses interdisciplinary applications in areas such as biology, medicine, polymers, and food science.

Surface chemistry plays an important role in everyday life, as the basis for many phenomena as well as technological applications. Common examples range from soap bubbles, foam, and raindrops to cosmetics, paint, adhesives, and pharmaceuticals. Additional areas that rely on surface chemistry include modern nanotechnology, medical diagnostics, and drug delivery. There is extensive literature on this subject, but most chemistry books only devote one or two chapters to it. Surface Chemistry Essentials fills a need for a reference that brings together the fundamental aspects of surface chemistry with up-to-date references and data from real-world examples.

This book enables readers to better understand many natural phenomena and industrial processes. Mathematical treatment is mainly given as references to make the material accessible to individuals with a broader range of scientific backgrounds. The book begins by introducing basic considerations with respect to liquid and solid surfaces and describes forces in curved versus flat liquid surfaces. Chapters cover properties of surface active substances, such as surfactants and soaps; lipid films and Langmuir-Blodgett films; and adsorption and desorption on solid surfaces.

The author discusses processes involved in liquid–solid interface phenomena, which are utilized in washing, coatings, lubrication, and more, and colloid chemistry systems and related industrial applications such as wastewater treatment. The author also addresses bubbles, films, and foams and the principles of oil–water emulsion science, used in detergents, paints, and skin creams. The final chapter considers more complex applications, for example, food emulsions, scanning probe miscroscopy, the cement industry, and gas and oil recovery.