adhesion on contact of the molecules of gases. dissolved substances. or liquids to the surface of solids or liquids with which they are in contact (contrast with absorption).
Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas, liquid or dissolved solid to a surface. This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the surface of the adsorbent. This process differs from absorption, in which a fluid (the absorbate) is dissolved by or permeates a liquid or solid (the absorbent), respectively. Adsorption is a surface phenomenon, while absorption involves the whole volume of the material. The term sorption encompasses both processes, while desorption is the reverse of it.
Note 1: Adsorption of proteins is of great importance when a material is in contact with blood or body fluids. In the case of blood, albumin, which is largely predominant, is generally adsorbed first, and then rearrangements occur in favor of other minor proteins according to surface affinity against mass law selection (Vroman effect).
Note 2: Adsorbed molecules are those that are resistant to washing with the same solvent medium in the case of adsorption from solutions. The washing conditions can thus modify the measurement results, particularly when the interaction energy is low.
Similar to surface tension, adsorption is a consequence of surface energy. In a bulk material, all the bonding requirements (be they ionic, covalent or metallic) of the constituent atoms of the material are filled by other atoms in the material. However, atoms on the surface of the adsorbent are not wholly surrounded by other adsorbent atoms and therefore can attract adsorbates. The exact nature of the bonding depends on the details of the species involved, but the adsorption process is generally classified as physisorption (characteristic of weak van der Waals forces) or chemisorption (characteristic of covalent bonding). It may also occur due to electrostatic attraction.
Adsorption is present in many natural, physical, biological and chemical systems and is widely used in industrial applications such as heterogeneous catalysts,activated charcoal, capturing and using waste heat to provide cold water for air conditioning and other process requirements (adsorption chillers), synthetic resins, increasing storage capacity of carbide-derived carbons and water purification. Adsorption, ion exchange and chromatography are sorption processes in which certain adsorbates are selectively transferred from the fluid phase to the surface of insoluble, rigid particles suspended in a vessel or packed in a column. Pharmaceutical industry applications, which use adsorption as a means to prolong neurological exposure to specific drugs or parts thereof,[citation needed] are lesser known.
The word "adsorption" was coined in 1881 by German physicist Heinrich Kayser (1853 –1940).