Surface Chemistry Essentials

Surface chemistry plays an important role in everyday life, as the basis for many phenomena as well as technological applications. Common examples range from soap bubbles, foam, and raindrops to cosmetics, paint, adhesives, and pharmaceuticals. Additional areas that rely on surface chemistry include modern nanotechnology, medical diagnostics, and drug delivery. There is extensive literature on this subject, but most chemistry books only devote one or two chapters to it. Surface Chemistry Essentials fills a need for a reference that brings together the fundamental aspects of surface chemistry with up-to-date references and data from real-world examples.This book enables readers to better understand many natural phenomena and industrial processes. Mathematical treatment is mainly given as references to make the material accessible to individuals with a broader range of scientific backgrounds. The book begins by introducing basic considerations with respect to liquid and solid surfaces and describes forces in curved versus flat liquid surfaces. Chapters cover properties of surface active substances, such as surfactants and soaps; lipid films and Langmuir-Blodgett films; and adsorption and desorption on solid surfaces. The author discusses processes involved in liquidsolid interface phenomena, which are utilized in washing, coatings, lubrication, and more, and colloid chemistry systems and related industrial applications such as wastewater treatment. The author also addresses bubbles, films, and foams and the principles of oil water emulsion science, used in detergents, paints, and skin creams. The final chapter considers more complex applications, for example, food emulsions, scanning probe miscroscopy, the cement industry, and gas and oil recovery.

Professor Birdi has worked at Standard Oil of California; Lever Bros. in Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Danish Technical University, Lyngby, Denmark. Dr. Birdi was appointed research professor in 1985, and in 1990 (through 1999) he was appointed as a professor at the School of Pharmacy in Copenhagen, Denmark. Professor Birdi has been a consultant to various national and international industries. He has been a member of various chemical societies and organizing committees of national and international meetings related to surface science (advisory member, 1985-1987, of the ACS journal Langmuir) . Professor Birdi is the author of some 100 papers and articles and has published diverse books, most recently Surface & Colloid Chemistry , CRC Press, 2010; and Introduction to Electrical Interfacial Phenomena , K.S. Birdi (Editor), 2010, CRC Press.

Introduction to Surface Chemistry Essentials. Capillarity and Surface Forces in Liquids (Curved Surfaces). Surfactants (Soaps and Detergents) Solutions: Essential Surface Properties. Monomolecular Lipid Films on Liquid Surfaces and Langmuir-Blodgett Films. Solid Surfaces: Adsorption and Desorption of different substances. Wetting, Adsorption and Cleaning Processes. Colloidal Dispersion Systems: Physicochemical Essential Properties. Gas Bubbles: Thin Liquid Films and Foams. Emulsions, Microemulsions, and Lyotropic Liquid Crystals. Essential Surface and Colloid Chemistry in Science and Industry. References. Appendix: Common Fundamental Constants.