Solids and surfaces : a chemist ' s view of bonding in extended surfaces by R. Hoffmann

Abstract

Macromolecules extended in one, two, and three dimensions, of biological/natural or synthetic origin, fill the world around us. Metals, alloys, and composites, be they copper or bronze or ceramic, have played a pivotal and a shaping role in our culture. Mineral structures form the base of the paint that colors our walls and the glass through which we look at the outside world. Organic polymers, natural or synthetic, clothe us. New materials-inorganic superconductors, conducting organic polymers-exhibiting unusual electric and magnetic properties, promise to shape the technology of the future. Solid state chemistry is imponant, alive, and growing. 1 So is surface science. A surface-be it of metal, an ionic or covalent solid, a semiconductor-is a form of matter with its own chemistry. In its structure and reactivity, it will bear resemblance to other forms of matter: bulk, discrete molecules in the gas phase and various aggregated states in solution. And it will have differences. Just as it is imponant to find the similarities, it is also imponant to note the differences. The similarities connect the chemistry of surfaces to the rest of chemistry, but the differences make life interesting (and make surfaces economically useful).