ABSTRACT
Interfacial physicochemical processes often involve an exchange of material at phase boundaries, such that the boundaries (interfaces) are chemically in ªux. Furthermore, such processes typically involve mass transport between bulk solution and the interface, coupled to (a series of) interfacial phenomena. To understand interfacial processes quantitatively, there are two general challenges: (i) to identify the contributions to the overall ªux, from the individual events in the sequence, so as to determine the relative importance of mass transport and the interfacial process and (ii) to elucidate the extent to which the various phenomena are spatially heterogeneous across the interface, that is, whether there are distinct sites of activity and, if so, what these are. The extent to which these challenges can be addressed depends on the type of interface and interfacial process.
