{"term":{"id":"05901","title":"stable film, metastable film","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - stable film, metastable film","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.S05901","code":"S05901","status":"current","also defines":"<em>also defines<\/em>: unstable film","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"A film often thins gradually to a thickness at which it either ruptures or converts abruptly to an equilibrium film. Rupture under these conditions characterizes unstable films, whereas transition to an equilibrium film characterizes (meta)stable films.","links":[{"term":"equilibrium film","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/E02181"},{"term":"film","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/F02366"},{"term":"stable","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/S05900"},{"term":"unstable","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/U06569"}],"sources":["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)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/S05901\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/S05901\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/S05901\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'stable film, metastable 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.S05901","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-05-18T10:34:29+00:00"}}