Hearing what you can’t see and visualizing what you hear: interpreting quartz crystal microbalance data from solvated interfaces

Over the last two decades quartz crystal microbalance (QCM or QCM-D) has emerged as a versatile tool for investigating soft and solvated interfaces between solid surfaces and bulk liquids, because it can provide a wealth of information about key structural and functional parameters of these interfaces. In this Feature Article, we offer QCM users a set of guidelines for interpretation and quantitative analysis of QCM data based on a synthesis of well established concepts rooted in rheological research of the last century and of new results obtained in the last several years.