Catalysts and Surfaces Characterization Techniques

Surfaces have always been fascinating for scientists, since nearly all chemical and biological transformations occur at the interface. In the last four decades or so, a variety of surface analytical techniques have been developed to examine both static and dynamic aspects of surfaces and interfaces. The information that could be obtained by employing these techniques can be varied, but can reach the limit of directly observing even in visual mode (by suitable microscopy) the interactions and morphologies up to molecular level resolution or deducing the nature of transformations at molecular level by appropriate electron, ion, photon induced spectroscopic techniques. There are also a variety of techniques based on thermal input. It is clear that all these analytical tools have changed our ability to examine the surfaces and surface induced transformations to a high degree of molecular resolution and the present book considers some of them with appropriate case studies.