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Publisher: Nash Press (March 15, 2007) | ISBN: 1406719242 | Pages: 348 | PDF | 9.96 MB

A knowledge of these matters is required for a proper under standing of adsorption, the formation and stability of disperse or micro-heterogeneous systems colloid sols and gels, catalysis, enzyme actions, etc., whilst the progress of research shows more and more clearly that the phenomena of life, i. e. the behaviour of cells and tissues, are intimately concerned with the actions occurring at surfaces, and that the effects produced by drugs, disinfectants, and other substances which profoundly affect the operation of cells and micro-organisms are largely due to surface actions.

From the general statistical and thermodynamic point of view, the scientific theory of surface phenomena was placed on a satisfactory basis by the researches of J. Willard Gibbs, Sir J. J. Thomson, and J. I, van der Waals. In comparatively recent times the more in timate molecular study of the structures and kinetics of surfaces has advanced very rapidly, thanks, more especially to the pioneer work of Lord Eayleigh, Andre . Marcelin, Sir W. B. Hardy and Irving Langmuir. Our knowledge of this subject has been greatly increased during the last few years by the excellent work of N. Adam and of E. K. Rideal. The combined effect of these researches has been to reveal the existence of a newly recognised so-called two dimensional molecular world, the dynamics of which is analogous to that of the ordinary three dimensional molecular world of homogeneous phases in bulk, whilst the structure of this surface world presents new phenomena of molecular orientation of the highest importance for the understanding of great regions of natural phenomena.