Title: critical thickness of a film
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - critical thickness of a film
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.C01403
Status: current

Definition
A film often thins gradually to a thickness at which it either ruptures or converts abruptly to an equilibrium film. This thickness is sometimes well enough defined statistically to be considered a critical thickness, \(t_{\rm{c}}\) or \(h_{\rm{c}}\).

Related Terms
- equilibrium film: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/E02181
- film: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/F02366

Source
- PAC, 1972, 31, 577. 'Manual of Symbols and Terminology for Physicochemical Quantities and Units, Appendix II: Definitions, Terminology and Symbols in Colloid and Surface Chemistry' on page 614 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac197231040577)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01403/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01403/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01403/xml

Citation: Citation: 'critical thickness of a film' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.C01403
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Accessed: 2026-07-02T13:21:52+00:00