A quantity measured by its area,
(or
). For solids, a real (true, actual) and a geometric surface (interface) area,
and
, respectively, may be defined if asperities are present whose height is orders of
magnitude greater than the atomic or molecular size. The geometric surface is the
projection of the real surface on a plane parallel to the macroscopic,
visible phase boundary. If asperities are of the order of the atomic size, the surface of
the solid may be described as stepped. (High index faces of crystals are stepped surfaces
but may be ideally smooth in the sense of the
roughness factor.)
Source:
PAC, 1986, 58, 437
(Interphases in systems of conducting phases (Recommendations 1985))
on page 439
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.
