Wetting, adsorption and surface critical phenomena

Our understanding of interfacial phenomena at the surfaces of critical systems, and in particular at the surfaces of critical binary liquid mixtures, has improved significantly in the past decade. There is now substantial agreement between theory and experiment. In this paper we review recent experimental progress, provide a conceptual framework within which the majority of these experiments can now be understood, and discuss critically any remaining unresolved discrepancies between experiments or with theory.