Condensation energies for metals on glass and other substrates

Abstract

Earlier work on condensation phenomena is briefly reviewed, and existing measurements of condensation energies are summarized. Measurements of condensation energies have been made for aluminium, silver and cadmium on glass and for aluminium and silver on single-crystal cleavage surfaces of sodium chloride and potassium bromide. Adhesive energies or binding energies between film and substrate have been calculated in each case. Association energies for nucleation are obtained by difference and shown to be consistent. Results for cadmium show good agreement with earlier work, but results for aluminium do not agree with the earlier results of Rhodin who measured the condensation energies for aluminium on various substrates, obtaining values which suggest chemisorption. These results appear to be too high and a possible explanation is given. It is concluded that the adhesive energy is due to physical adsorption and can be explained in terms of van der Waals forces only.