Self-energy in adsorption

Abstract

The concept of self-energy of a molecule, the dispersion analogue of the Born self-energy of an ion, is developed. The use of this concept in theories of adsorption and interfacial energies is discussed. When molecular size is taken into account, the theories of Lifshitz, Brunauer, Emmett and Teller, restricted adsorption and the Hill theory all emerge as special cases. In general a simple power law of the isotherm is not always appropriate for multilayer adsorption.