CORRELATIONS OF ATOMIC-STRUCTURE AND REACTIVITY AT SOLID-GAS AND SOLID-LIQUID INTERFACES

The electrochemistry community provides the largest number of users of experimental information obtained at solid-liquid interfaces. Molecul ar scale surface science studies have been carried out mostly at solid -gas and solid-vacuum interfaces, although recently several optical an d scanning tunneling techniques have become available that can scrutin ize solid-liquid interfaces on the molecular level as well. In order t o correlate structure and chemical behavior at solid-liquid and solid- gas interfaces, we suggest investigations of the same or similar syste ms in sequence at the solid-gas, solid-liquid, solid-solvent, and reac tant interfaces, and solid-solvent and reactant interfaces with an ext ernal potential. In this paper we review the information accumulated f rom solid-gas interface studies on the effect of changing coverage, on bonding, and on trends of bonding across the periodic table. We discu ss what is known about the surface structure, the surface chemical bon d, the dynamics of surface atoms (diffusion, growth), and the reactivi ty of metal surfaces from solid-gas interface studies. In each section the available solid-liquid interface studies are also indicated. We h ope to provide directions for future studies for those interested in c orrelating phenomena at solid-liquid and solid-gas interfaces.