In surface science, selective adsorption is the effect when minima associated with bound-state resonances occur in specular intensity in atom-surface scattering.
An example of selective adsorption can be demonstrated in the growth of Rochelle salt crystals.
However, by then adding sodium hydroxide to the solution, the preferred crystal faces will change once again.
[1] Pronounced intensity minima were first observed in 1930 by Theodor Estermann, Otto Frisch, and Otto Stern,[citation needed] during a series of gas-surface interaction experiments attempting to demonstrate the wave nature of atoms and molecules.
[citation needed] The selective adsorption binding energies can supply information on the gas-surface interaction potentials by yielding the vibrational energy spectrum of the gas atom bound to the surface.