Radicals at Interfaces: Understanding and Exploiting the Physical Behaviour of Radicals on the Surfaces of Biological and Bulk Materials

被称为自由基的化学物种往往是高度活性的，因为它们有一个或多个未配对的电子。在生命系统中，氧中心自由基的存在是因为氧气的呼吸。这些以氧为中心的自由基对蛋白质等生物材料极具破坏性，因为它们会引发化学反应，破坏生物材料的功能，从而引发疾病状态。在高科技应用中，自由基经常充当缺陷中心，通过充当电荷陷阱来抑制计算机芯片等电子设备的性能。但在这两个不同的例子系统中，激进分子无处不在。

Chemical species known as radicals tend to be highly reactive because they have one or more unpaired electrons.  In living systems, oxygen-centred radicals are present because of the respiration of oxygen.  These oxygen-centred radicals are extremely damaging to biological materials such as proteins because they initiate chemical reactions that destroy biomaterial function and consequently induce disease states.  In high-technology applications, radicals often serve as defect centres that inhibit the performance of electronic devices such as computer chips by acting as charge-traps.  In both of these diverse example systems, radicals are ubiquitous.