Interfacial Structures and Their Properties

About this Research Topic

Background

Many macroscopic phenomena are determined by interfacial properties. Examples are the functioning of lubricants, catalysis, the wetting of surfaces, corrosion phenomena, information storage techniques, and many other applications. From a bottom-up perspective, these macroscopic phenomena are driven by microscopic, especially atomic, electronic, and magnetic structure details. Interface-sensitive techniques developed in the field of surface science have proven to be successful in measuring these properties, and the properties are sometimes even atomically resolved. However, the structure-property relationships are still not clear, which requires a tight interplay between experimentalists and theorists.

The goal of this Research Topic is two-fold. First, it is intended to represent an overview or cross-section of current research. We aim for a collection of state-of-the-art methods, emphasizing both experiment and theory, applied to solve timely problems. Second, this Research Topic should allow the reader to establish or derive potential unifying concepts or principles. It is well known that interfacial properties are vastly different from those of their bulk counterparts, which in turn depend on structure and morphology as well as environmental conditions. However, there is a plethora of possibilities to form interfaces, beginning with the supposedly easiest solid/vacuum interface and ending with, for instance, complex electrochemical or physiological membrane interfaces. We are deeply convinced that it is of value to devise concepts that are common to all of them.

We are aiming for research articles potentially covering synthesis and characterization and including both experimental as well as computational approaches. Interface physics and chemistry is a truly cross-disciplinary topic, and thus we encourage submissions from various distinct fields of applications. Most welcome are contributions involving combined experiment-theory efforts.

Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include the structural, electronic, vibrational, and chemical properties related to:

 • Adsorption on metal surfaces
 • Water/ice on oxides
 • Organic-inorganic interfaces
 • Electrochemical interfaces/double layers
 • Interfaces formed upon catalytic chemical reactions
 • Size- and shape-specific nanostructures and their interfaces

Keywords: Molecular Interaction, Adsorption Structures, Energy Conversion, Spectroscopy, Microscopy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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