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.
A research team led by Prof. Tian-Bao Ma from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University has proposed a novel strategy to reduce friction and wear by inducing dynamic electronic density redistribution ...
General Physics
Jul 9, 2025
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72
Insects use a wax layer on their bodies to prevent water loss. Furthermore, they use the layer for communication. Although the chemical composition of this layer has been extensively studied, researchers at Johannes Gutenberg ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 8, 2025
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23
Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, report in Small, on how short peptides self-assemble linearly on atomically-thick solid surfaces, such as graphite and MoS2.
Nanomaterials
Jun 26, 2025
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32
A team of bio-robotic specialists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems has confirmed theories suggesting that scaly-tailed flying squirrels use their spiky tails to keep their perch in slippery trees. In their ...
Atoms slip against one another, eventually sticking in various combinations. Tectonic plates do the same, sliding across each other until they stick in a stationary state. Everything from the tiniest particles to unfathomably ...
General Physics
Jun 23, 2025
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61
A research team led by Professor Huang Xingjiu at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a highly stable adaptive integrated interface for ion sensing. The study was published ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 19, 2025
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40
Physicists at the University of Liège have succeeded in sculpting the surface of water by exploiting surface tension. Using 3D printing of closely spaced spines, they have combined menisci to create programmed liquid reliefs, ...
Soft Matter
Jun 17, 2025
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146
Dr. Seunggun Yu and his team at KERI's Insulation Materials Research Center have developed "Hybrid Supraparticle Synthesis Technology" that can attach inorganic nanoparticles to the surface of polymer microparticles through ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 17, 2025
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74
Researchers have identified a form of molecular motion that has not previously been observed. When what are known as "guest molecules"—molecules that are accommodated within a host molecule—penetrate droplets of DNA polymers, ...
Nanophysics
Jun 12, 2025
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51
Adatoms are single atoms that get adsorbed onto the surface of a solid material and are known to hop randomly from one spot to another. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, a group of scientists from Germany ...
