An Introduction to Surface Chemistrywritten byDr. Roger Nix Department of Chemistry
1.  Structure of Metallic Surfaces1.1  Surface Structure of Metals In most technological applications, metals are used either in a finely divided form (e.g. supported metal catalysts) or in a massive, polycrystalline form (e.g. electrodes, mechanical fabrications). At the microscopic level, most materials, with the notable exception of a few truly amorphous specimens, can be considered as a collection or aggregate of single crystal crystallites. The surface chemistry of the material as a whole is therefore crucially dependent upon the nature and type of surfaces exposed on these crystallites. In principle, therefore, we can understand the surface properties of any material if we know the amount of each type of surface exposed , and have detailed knowledge of the properties of each and every type of surface plane. (This approach assumes that we can neglect the possible influence of crystal defects and solid state interfaces on the surface chemistry) It is...