Surface science, physical chemistry course

Factors such as the above have shaped our approach to the present edition. The philosophy behind the first two editions was that most of the material in the book should be a natural extension of an introductory physical chemistry course at the undergraduate level and should be accessible to anyone (students as well as practicing engineers and scientists) with such a background. This remains the rule in the present edition as well. In our opinion, this orientation is essential for giving a firm foundation in colloids and surfaces to the diverse audience, which typically includes individuals from almost all branches of engineering and the sciences. 

The purpose of this book is to describe the present state of development of modem surface science at an introductory level to students of physical sciences and engineering. Junior standing in chemistry, physics, engineering, or the life sciences would qualify the student to take a course that would make use of this text. Teachers of introductory general chemistry courses usually given during the first year of university or college enrollment could use certain chapters (with deletions of some of the derivations) to supplement discussions of thermodynamics or catalysis, for example. We have used some of the chapters as supplementary material in our freshman and our core physical chemistry courses at Berkeley. The book should also be useful as a reference for professionals in need of data and concepts related to the properties of surfaces and interfaces. 

The paradoxical situation just described means that it is entirely possible for a science or an engineering student to have completed a course in physical chemistry and still not have any clear idea of what colloid and surface science are about. A book like this one is therefore in the curious position of being simultaneously advanced and introductory. Our discussions are often advanced in the sense of building on topics from physical chemistry. At the same time, we have to describe the phenomena under consideration pretty much from scratch since they are largely unfamiliar. In keeping with this, this chapter is concerned primarily with a broad description of the scope of colloid and surface science and the kinds of variables with which they deal. In subsequent chapters different specific phenomena are developed in detail. 

The text largely contains fundamental material and focuses on understanding the basic principles rather than learning factual information. Since it is impossible to include all branches of surface science in such an introductory book because of its wide and multidisciplinary scope, a specific and narrow topic, the interfacial interactions between solids and liquids, has been chosen for this book. For this reason, the ionic interactions, charged polymers, electrochemistry, electrokinetics and the colloid and particulate sciences cannot be included. Some fundamental physical chemistry subjects such as basic thermodynamics are covered, and many equations are derived from these basic concepts throughout the book in order to show the links between applied surface equations and the fundamental concepts. This is lacking in most textbooks and applied books in surface chemistry, and for this reason, this book can be used as a textbook for a course of 14-15 weeks. 

Rebinder (Institute of Physical Chemistry, the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, Moscow) (364) examined how the water layer is bound to the dispersed materials in the course of drying. The isothermic free energy (or characteristic binding strength of water on the surface) of the free water equals zero ... 

Sensor science generates thousands of new publications each year. Undoubtedly, the development of sensor applications, in the course of these last years, is and has to remain multidisciplinary with research and engineering opportunities straddling across chemical engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, materials, processing science, surface science, information science, and other engineering disciplines, so the innovative ideas described in the scientific literature will reach the marketplace in the future. 

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