Surfaces as Having a Fractal Geometry

The above methods for obtaining D, as well as other ones, are reviewed in Refs. 3-12, and Refs. 7-9 give tables of D values for various adsorbents. For example, D is close to 3 for the highly porous silica gels and close to 2 for nonporous fumed silica and for graphitized carbon black coconut charcoal and alumina were found to have D values of 2.67 and 2.79, respectively [7]. 

The chemical reactivity of a self-similar surface should vary with its fractional dimension. Consider a reactive molecule that is approaching a surface to make a hit. Taking Fig. VII-6d as an illustration, it is evident that such a molecule can see only a fraction of the surface. The rate of dissolving of quartz in HF, for example, is proportional to where Dr, the reactive 

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