Surface Chemistry, 5 cr

Core content

• The surface chemistry course focuses on understanding and utilizing the chemical and physical properties of surfaces and interfaces in nanotechnology and life sciences. The interfaces that will be considered are gas-liquid, liquid-liquid (fluids), gas-solid and liquid-solid (non-fluids) and biological interfaces.
• The course introduces basic concepts and definitions of surface chemistry. Qualitative descriptions will be expanded by mathematical models.
• The thermodynamic properties of the interfaces and adsorption kinetics will be dealt with in more depth than in the Physical Chemistry courses. In addition, we will look at various methods of measuring surface tension and adsorption, and e.g. how electrolytes and non-electrolytes and impurities affect the surface tension of the solutions.
• Various methods for analyzing surfaces are presented and discussed.