Surface-area-to-volume ratio Surface-area-to-volume ratio The surface-area-to-volume ratio, also called the surface-to-volume ratio and variously denoted sa/vol or SA:V, is the amount of surface area per unit volume of an object or collection of objects. In chemical reactions involving a solid material, the surface area to volume ratio is an important factor for the reactivity, that is, the rate at which the chemical reaction will proceed. For a given volume, the object with the smallest surface area (and therefore with the smallest SA:V) is the sphere, a consequence of the isoperimetric inequality in 3 dimensions. By contrast, objects with tiny spikes will have
Surface energy radius formula_1 and length formula_2 at high temperature and a constant uniaxial tension formula_3, then at equilibrium, the variation of the total Helmholtz free energy vanishes and we have where formula_5 is the Helmholtz free energy and formula_6 is the surface area of the rod: Also, since the volume (formula_8) of the rod remains constant, the variation (formula_9) of the volume is zero, i.e., Therefore, the surface energy density can be expressed as The surface energy density of the solid can be computed by measuring formula_3, formula_1, and formula_2 at equilibrium. This method is valid only if the solid is