Most oxidE.. surfaces interact with ambient water vapor to form
a layer of chemisorbed hydroxyls. Physical adsorption of multilayer
water readily starts by hydrogen bonding onto the hydroxyl array.
The normally hydrophilic surface 0£ silica can be modified by
heating to produce a predominantly hydrophobic matrix which
contains but a few isolated hydrophilic sites, around which water
adsorbs in clusters. The authors\u27 results on both hydrophilic and
hydrophobed oxides are discussed and compared to results in the
literature
