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Surface characteristics of a material refer to the properties associated with its surface. Typically measurements of surface area, surface roughness, pore size, and reflectivity constitute surface characteristics. Information on surface characteristics is very important for the possible applications of surfaces as semiconductors, heterogeneous catalysts and also in biological research. Surface area is an attribute that is used by catalyst manufacturers and users to monitor the activity and stability of a catalyst. There are different methods used to measure different surface properties. Most methods are based on the isothermal adsorption of nitrogen. Many advances in surface science have made the methods surface sensitive, i.e., they are sensitive to the outermost atomic layers (depth of 2-3 atomic layers) of the bulk solids. These techniques could be classified into two categories: Classical Methods and Instrumental methods.
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