Interface anisotropy, role

An enhanced understanding of the important role of the interface anisotropy on the microstructure evolution also raised a question on the conventional approach to the pore-boundary separation problem. It was noted that pores should remain at the... 

Although, to date, interface anisotropy has received less consideration in the study of microstructure evolution, it is dear that it plays a critical role in determining the final microstructure of materials. It can be said that a desirable microstructure could only be obtained by a dear understanding of interface anisotropy, and making proper use of it. Today, most theoretical developments relating to interface anisotropy and microstructure evolution remain qualitative in nature, due mainly to the lack of a database on the interface anisotropy of the materials in use. Hence, an extensive accumulation of these data, and a better refinement of theory, should further enhance the present understanding of the microstructure evolution of materials. 

Tnterfacial phenomena play a fundamental role in biological systems. It A is important to know if surface energy and anisotropy affect the conformation of biological macromolecules. Well defined physicochemical models might simplify this problem (1- 8) spread monolayers at the air-water interface exemplify this kind of model. For polypeptides which are introduced as simple models of proteins, no surface denatura-tion of the spread macromolecules occurred (9, 10, 11). Protein structures are too complex to yield direct information about eventual changes of conformation, but one can detect the presence or the disappearance of biological activity—e.g., enzymic activity. The enzyme would be denatured if the conformation were modified by the anisotropy of the interface. 

In the presence of redox couples confined to the hydrophobic liquid phase, photoinduced heterogeneous electron transfer can be effectively monitored by photoelectrochemical techniques under potentiostatic conditions. The photocurrent responses are uniquely related to specifically adsorbed porphyrins, as demonstrated by the photocurrent anisotropy to the angle of polarisation of the incident illumination (Section 4.3). Systematic studies of the photocurrent intensity as a function of the formal potential of the redox couple and the Galvani potential difference revealed that the dynamics of electron transfer are determined by the distance separating the redox species at the interface. Other processes including decay of the electronically excited state, back electron transfer, porphyrin regeneration and coupled ion transfer play important role on the dynamics of the photocurrent responses. 

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