Surface and interfacial phenomena as a research area encompass the study of physical, chemical, and physicochemical processes occurring at phase boundaries, including solid–liquid, solid–gas, liquid–gas, and liquid–liquid interfaces. This field investigates adsorption, wetting, adhesion, capillarity, surface tension, interfacial rheology, and related equilibrium and non-equilibrium behaviors. It integrates thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, spectroscopy, microscopy, and simulation to elucidate structure–property relationships at interfaces. Research in this area underpins advances in catalysis, colloid and dispersion stability, electrochemistry, nanomaterials, biomembranes, microfluidics, and advanced coatings, with emphasis on how interfacial structure, composition, and energetics govern macroscopic material performance and functionality.
New research has revealed that water behaves differently when confined to spaces just one molecule thick. For the first time, scientists have directly measured the vibrational signatures of truly two-dimensional water. In ...
Nanophysics
Jul 6, 2026
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36
Olive oil and water do not naturally mix. Water molecules are polar, having a net electric dipole moment due to the bend angle of about 104.5° between the two oxygen-hydrogen bonds. Olive oil is nonpolar due to its long hydrocarbon ...
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) have developed a technique for interrogating molecules on surfaces with spectroscopic precision, thereby reaching the ultimate quantum limit for the first ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 26, 2026
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89
Plasma is an ionized gas, often referred to as the fourth state of matter. Plasmas, which are created artificially by applying energy to a gas, are found in the fluorescent tubes that illuminate kitchens. However, they have ...
Nanophysics
Jun 26, 2026
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11
Water is the most studied molecule on Earth, yet a surprisingly basic question has gone unanswered for decades: When water is squeezed into gaps just a few molecules wide—as happens inside nanoscale pores, membranes and biological ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 25, 2026
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65
A research team at the Ruhr University Bochum Department of Molecular and Cellular Botany, led by Professor Christopher Grefen, has uncovered how plants form the tiny pores on their leaves responsible for gas exchange and ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 25, 2026
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5
Researchers at Tohoku University have uncovered the long-standing mystery behind the synthesis of Janus two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, paving the way for more precise manufacturing of materials used in future electronics ...
Nanophysics
Jun 24, 2026
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9
Researchers have developed a chip-based metasurface biosensor that can detect traumatic brain injury (TBI) biomarkers at extremely low levels. With further development, the technology could one day help doctors make a faster ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 23, 2026
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4
This April, when the spring breeze carried the formal acceptance notice of our paper by the Journal of the American Chemical Society to my desk, my thoughts instantly drifted back to the late Phil Geissler. A legendary physical ...
Our body contains an intricate system of tiny vessels through which blood, water and other molecules flow. When the size of the pipes shrinks to the nanoscale, where only a few molecules can fit side by side, the classical ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 22, 2026
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26
