Surface-Esterification of Silica: from Fundamentals to Applications

Abstract

Chemical modification of surfaces is a vast topic with many facets. This chapter introduces key concepts in, applications of, and reagents for the synthesis of modified surfaces. The significance of surface-modification for both science and technology is demonstrated, followed with a background on how the topic of this thesis came into being. This narrows the focus to modification of silica surfaces by means of reactions with alcohols, the topic of this thesis. The literature on surface-esterification of silica is reviewed and an outline of this thesis presented.