Interfacialbeiträgen

Interfacialbeiträgen, or interfacial contributions, is a term used in materials science, physics and chemistry to describe quantities or effects that originate predominantly at the interface between two phases, rather than within the bulk phases. In practice, many measured properties of multi-phase systems reflect both bulk and interfacial contributions; separating the interfacial part helps reveal the structure, chemistry and dynamics at the boundary.

In electrochemistry, the electrode–electrolyte interface contributes a substantial portion of the impedance through the electrical double layer and charge-transfer processes. In thermal and mechanical transport, interfacial contributions appear as boundary resistances or discontinuities, such as Kapitza resistance for heat flow across solid–liquid or solid–gas boundaries. In optics and spectroscopy, interfacial contributions arise from changes in refractive index and surface roughness, affecting reflectivity, transmission and surface-enhanced signals. In surface science, adsorption, wetting, and chemical reactions at the boundary further modify measured responses.

Modeling often treats the total response as a sum of bulk and interfacial components. This may involve equivalent-circuit models in impedance spectroscopy, boundary-layer analyses, or effective-medium approaches, sometimes using a defined dividing surface to separate the regions. The interfacial region is typically nanometers wide but can vary with material and condition.

Interfacialbeiträgen are central to designing and optimizing devices and processes such as batteries and supercapacitors, catalysts, sensors, corrosion protection, and coatings, where interface behavior can dominate performance. The concept and terminology are more common in German-language literature but are used with-field variations in English discussions of interfacial phenomena.