Themed collection Surface chemistry and interface science

Surface chemistry and interface science is about phenomena at interfaces and the self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules.

Microfluidic devices allow actuation on the microscale, while in situ SAXS allows visualization of these effects in relevant systems.

In living organisms the aqueous medium is used for providing low friction forces. This is achieved by synergistic actions of different biomolecules that together accomplish a high load bearing capacity and sustain an easily sheared water layer.

This perspective discusses the fundamental processes behind electrosorption at charged interfaces, and highlights advances in electrode design for sustainable technologies in water purification and ion-selective separations.

Comparisons of science and technology between these solid and liquid surfaces would be a good navigation for current-to-future developments.

The interactions and structural properties of cellulose influence different phenomena.

Controlled assembled micro-/nanomotors are driven in fluid by near infrared light. The behaviour and mechanism of self-thermophoretic motion are reviewed.

Surface science, which spans the fields of chemistry, physics, biology and materials science, requires information to be obtained on the local properties and property variations across a surface.

Colloidal diffusion in confined geometries is analysed at the level of anisotropic pair densities.

A rational approach, aiming at constructing a unified theory of hydrotropy, will be presented based upon the first principles of statistical thermodynamics.

Multiscale molecular simulations that combine and systematically link several hierarchies can provide insights into the evolution and dynamics of hierarchical peptide self-assembly from the molecular level to the mesoscale.

We review near-infrared photochemistry at interfaces based on upconverting nanoparticles, highlight its potential applications, and discuss the challenges.

Highly-ordered, large-scale stripe patterns could be formed simultaneously on both the inner and outer surfaces of capillary tubes with orthogonal orientations.

Rheological behaviors and aqueous solution microstructures of wormlike micelles and a water-soluble polymer are compared.

A fluorescent film was constructed with the well-known Langmuir–Blodgett technique, and it showed exceptional sensing performances for some diamine vapors.

The Young's modulus of three-dimensional self-assembled Ag nanocrystals, as so-called supracrystals, is correlated with the type of coating agent as well as the nanocrystal morphology.

Fast and single-step formation of metal oxide core–shell particles with a loading of 50 wt% active substance.

Interfacial tension reduction, dynamic dilatational elasticity and extent of adsorption were investigated for linear poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) chains of varying molecular weight and for PEO star polymers with an average of 64 arms per star at air/water, xylene/water, and cyclohexane/water interfaces.

Presented here are the results for a novel class of hydrocarbon surfactants, termed trimethylsilyl hedgehogs (TMS-hedgehogs), due to the presence of silicon in the tails.

Membrane interactions are critical for the successful use of inorganic nanoparticles as antimicrobial agents and as carriers of, or co-actives with, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs).

We propose that chitosan can be used as an efficient pH-responsive protective layer for pH sensitive soft materials.

An explicit expression, free from adjustable parameters, is derived for the effective pair interaction between charged colloidal spheres at high concentration in a medium containing an electrolyte.

Two different fucoidan polymers have been used to create substrates for protein adsorption studies.

Decreasing polyanion chain length increases the elastic modulus and saloplasticity threshold in freestanding polyelectrolyte multilayers.

In this contribution, we link the mesoscopic structuring of the binary structured solvent mixture H₂O/tert-butanol (TBA) to the kinetics and efficacy of the oxidation of benzyl alcohol (BA) to the corresponding aldehyde catalyzed by H₅PMo₁₀V₂O₄₀.

Compound AWE-somes with tunable shells generated by aqueous interfacial complexation of a polycation with a polyanion and anionic nanoparticle mixture.

Compressible thin layers floating on a liquid surface develop wrinkled and folded patterns under lateral pressure.

Reaction of TBHQ and 16-ArN₂⁺ in CTAB/C₁₂E₆ mixed micellar interfaces is strongly affected by the interfacial hydrogen ion concentration and not micelle size.

The swollen structure of microgels with a crosslinked-polymer backbone is recovered by considering the crosslinker gradient inside the particles.

o/w Microemulsion embedded in hydrogels are efficient and safe solvent confinement tools for the cleaning of artworks. The structure of PVA networks and the diffusion properties of a microemulsion are investigated to get fundamental insights on the cleaning processes.

Surface domains of C₈F₁₇C₁₆H₃₃ exist at zero surface pressure with solid-like alkyl chains stretched in an all-trans configuration, shown using IRRAS.

By one-pot covalent-reaction-induced interfacial assembly, doxorubicin is facilely transformed into nanophotomedicine with remarkable ability of singlet oxygen generation and greatly improved anticancer efficiency.

The surfactant lowers the interfacial energy between the phases, favoring polymer dewetting.

Bicelles can be formulated by a simple one-step process using a polyglyceryl dialkyl ether that has asymmetric tails.

The dynamic and equilibrium surface tension for drops of aqueous C₁₄EO₈ solutions at the interface to pure air or pentane, hexane, heptane and toluene saturated air, and the dynamic surface tension of pure water at these interfaces are presented.