AbstractThis paper presents a synopsis of already published work for cracks on interfaces and new results on the effect of changing the chemistry of the atoms at the interface. Once the appropriate cut-off for the oscillatory singularity in the interface analysis is determined, the physics of the crack is determined in terms of an appropriate driving force for a particular event of interest, and a lattice resistance to the event. Analytic approximations are available for the driving forces, and the lattice resistance is determined on the basis of a block construction for the lattice. We show that for the case where the chemical bonding at the interface is different from that in the matrix, the same ideas are applicable, provided the different chemistry is incorporated correctly in the lattice resistance construction.