Atomistic thermodynamic treatment

At the end of this Chapter it is worth commenting upon the correlation between the atomistic thermodynamic treatment of the n A p ) relationship (Figure 1.29) and the continuity, classical approach leading to the Gibbs-Thomson equation (1.62, 1.75, 1.136), (Figure 1.16). 

The two standard approaches in any treatment of kinetics [28] are to explain the system in terms of me thermodynamic driving forces (namely, VjJ.) or in terms of the fnndamental rate eqnations. The rate equations can be fnrther subdivided into an atomistic, or microscopic, approach that accounts for individual molecules as they go through the various processes (adsorption, desorption, diffusion, capture, and release) or a phenomenological, or macroscopic, explanation that looks for correlations and the so-called scaling laws over large distances (much larger than the lattice spacing). 

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