The effect of water vapour on the ionic conduction along the surface of some materials is studied.
In order to account for the experimental results obtained, the following semi-empirical formula for the region of low adsorption is given: log
i/
i0=β
n where
i and
i0 are the intensities of current through the sample, adsorbed and unadsorbed respectively,
n is the number of adsorbed H
20 monolayers and β is a constant.
From extensive data on glass and porcelain that were obtained by the author and on selenium films evaporated on porcelain by R. Serizawa and also on a germanium
p-
n junction by J. T. Law, it has been revealed that the above expression is valid only for the range where
n is less than a certain critical value characteristic to the material tested.
As the number of the adsorbed monolayers increases over this critical value, this linearity between log
i/
i0 and
n ceases to hold, and the surface current increases linearly with
n.
This deviation from the above expression at high water vapour pressures is considered to come from the bulk liquid-like phase transition of the adsorbed water, and this transition is discussed by the liquid slab theory of adsorption isotherm introduced by Frenkel-Hill-Halsey.
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