Surfaces with Spatial Property Gradients

The Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry at Interfaces: Surfaces with Spatial Property Gradients aims to bring together researchers working at the frontiers of interfacial science to consider and discuss the fundamental properties of surfaces and interfaces exhibiting gradients in physicochemical properties and the characterization thereof. In the recent past, materials with spatially varying properties have offered unique access to high throughput studies of biological, chemical, physical and mechanical responses. Advances in the design, control, synthesis, and growth of interfaces have produced unique surfaces and interfaces with continuous variations in structure, composition, topography, chemical reactivity, as well as magnetic, electronic, and mechanical properties. Variations in their properties have been explored on molecular, colloidal, and mesoscopic length scales and within materials categories including polymers, biopolymers, self-assembled monolayers, inorganics and alloys. The conference will focus on fundamental descriptions of gradient systems in terms of their atomic and molecular scale structure, thermodynamics, kinetics and equilibrium. In turn, the conference will offer the opportunity to identify commonalities in the driving forces behind gradient formation and stability, thus allowing potentially greater control of their synthesis and properties. Furthermore, the conference will address efforts aimed at characterizing gradient structures over the range of length scales at which they exist, highlighting the challenges of resolving differences on the molecular scale.