The minimum work needed to extract electrons from the
Fermi level of a metal M across a surface carrying no net charge. It is equal to the sum of the
potential energy and the kinetic
Fermi energy taken with the reverse sign:
whera
is the potential energy for electrons in metals
and
is the
kinetic energy of electrons at the
Fermi level.
Source:
PAC, 1986, 58, 437
(Interphases in systems of conducting phases (Recommendations 1985))
on page 441
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.
