Abstract
THE behaviour and properties of interfaces were discussed at a conference arranged by the Faraday Society on October 1. The subject is of fundamental importance in the science of colloids, and it is only by a better appreciation of the former that we can hope to unravel the peculiarities of such complex systems as are to be found in natural colloidal materials. The liquid-gas and liquid-liquid interfaces are more simple than those containing a solid surface, since liquids present equipotential surfaces. There is little doubt that the concept of a unimolecular layer of orientated molecules as constituting the surface layer of an insoluble oil on the surface of water is correct, and many investigations are being made on the conditions of formation and stability of these orientated, two-dimensional systems in their solid, liquid, vapour, and gaseous states of aggregation. All the usual three-dimensional phase phenomena, such as allotropy or the process of vaporisation, have been shown to have their two-dimensional prototypes. For soluble substances the surface composition can only be calculated by means of the Gibbs' equation, a thermodynamic process which gives no information as to the dimensions or orientations of the surface phase. That within certain ranges of bulk concentrations, however, the Gibbs' layer is vmimolecular, is made probable by experiments on sparingly soluble fatty acids and the analogy between the properties of the surfaces of solution and three-dimensional gases.
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R., E. Physical Phenomena and Molecular Orientation at Interfaces. Nature 118, 607–608 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118607b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118607b0