ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some selected problems of adsorption on non-uniform surfaces with a stress on the results obtained just with the help of computer simulation methods. It briefly summarizes basic models of surface heterogeneity and various methods used to generate heterogeneous surfaces for computer simulation studies. The chapter examines the problem of correlations between geometrical and energetical heterogeneities. It considers the effects of surface heterogeneity on phase transitions and ordering phenomena in adsorbed layers. The chapter explores more complex systems involving multilayer films and wetting phenomena on energetically and geometrically non-uniform surfaces. A direct link between the surface heterogeneity of real surfaces and possible phase transitions in adsorbed layers is supplied by the great difficulties in experimental observation of the characteristic for the phase transition behavior of thermodynamic quantities in adsorption experiments. The chapter deals with some basic thermodynamic considerations which show clearly why the effects of surface heterogeneity make the study of surface phase transitions so difficult.
