Sorption

Gas–liquid absorption (a) and liquid–solid adsorption (b) mechanism. Blue spheres are solute molecules.

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes attached to another. Specific cases of sorption are treated in the following articles:

• Absorption – "the incorporation of a substance in one state into another of a different state"^[1] (e.g., liquids being absorbed by a solid or gases being absorbed by a liquid);
• Adsorption – the physical adherence or bonding of ions and molecules onto the surface of another phase (e.g., reagents adsorbed to a solid catalyst surface);
• Ion exchange – an exchange of ions between two electrolytes or between an electrolyte solution and a complex.

The reverse of sorption is desorption.

See also

• Sorption isotherm

References

1. Crini, edited by Grégorio; Badot, Pierre-Marie (2010). Sorption processes and pollution : conventional and non-conventional sorbents for pollutant removal from wastewaters. Besançon: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté. p. 43. ISBN 2848673044.