1.0 Introduction

Surface chemistry is that branch of chemistry which deals with the study of the phenomena occurring at the surface or interface, i.e., at the boundary separating two bulk phases.

The two bulk phases can be pure compounds or solutions. The interface is represented by putting a hyphen or a slash between the two bulk phases involved, e.g., solid-liquid or solid/liquid. No interface exists between gases as they are completely miscible. It is an important branch of chemistry as a number of phenomena occur at the interface, e.g., dissolution, crystallization, corrosion, heterogeneous catalysis, electrode processes, etc.