| Summary: | Kinetics of Metal-Gas Interactions at Low Temperatures is devoted to the formation of natural oxide films. These thin surface layers are produced instantaneously when oxygen or water vapor is present in the gas atmosphere. They are responsible for corrosion behavior, for wear and friction of metallic materials, and also for hydrogen embrittlement and poisoning of catalytic surface reactions. Oxidation is a hindrance in surface science and in modern thin-film manufacturing. It can be reliably avoided only with expensive ultra-high vacuum techniques. Despite the practical relevance of the topic, quantitative data are sparse and the few papers published on low-temperature oxidation provide mainly qualitative information. This monograph presents an introduction to the subject in a tutorial style. It demonstrates how complex metal-gas interactions can be analyzed by standard procedures of chemical kinetics, and simulated by reaction models. Typical features of metal-gas reactions observed at ambient and elevated temperatures are illustrated by experimental results. Possible reaction mechanisms are described both by approximations and by advanced models. Rate and time laws describe the limiting cases and the more realistic situation where, in an overall reaction, several crucial partial steps must be considered, namely, adsorption onto the surface and the diffusion of charged or uncharged defects in metallic or semiconducting surface layers
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