Adsorption is the process where a gas or liquid accumulates on the surface of a solid or liquid, forming a film. It occurs due to surface energy - atoms on the surface experience a bond deficiency. There are two types: physisorption, where adsorbate adheres via weak van der Waals forces; and chemisorption, where chemical bonds form. Factors influencing adsorption include surface area, gas nature, temperature, and pressure. Adsorption has applications in vacuum production, gas masks, catalysis, and water purification.

1. 1

2. What is Adsorption?
Adsorption is a process
that occurs when a gas or
liquid solute accumulates
on the surface of a solid or
a liquid (adsorbent),
forming a molecular or
atomic film (adsorbate)
2
ADSORBENT ADSORBATE SOLUTION

3. d
Difference between Adsorption and Absorption

4. Why does Adsorption occur ?
• Consequence of surface energy
• Atoms on the surface experience a bond
deficiency, because they are not wholly
surrounded by other atoms
4

5. Adsorption: a surface phenomenon
Adsorbent
Adsorbate
Removal of bound material is called desorption i.e. opposite of adsorption
Selective solute
binding

6. Surface Energy
• An explanation of why material accumulates at
the interface is based on the excess energy
associated with particles at interfaces. For
example, in the case of pure water and air, the
water molecules at the air-water interface have
higher energy than water molecules in the interior
of the water phase. The reason that these surface
molecules have higher energy is that, unlike the
interior molecules, they have an unbalanced force
component (on the airside of the molecule).

7. • These surface molecules have additional
energy to balance the forces. It takes energy to
put molecules on the surface, since at least one
of the interior bonds must be broken to get the
molecule to the surface. This excess energy is
called surface tension. Since it takes energy to
create interfacial surfaces, the system will try
to minimize the total interfacial surface area.
Hence, we see spherical droplet, meniscus etc.

8. Types of Adsorption
• Physisorption or physical adsorption is a type
of adsorption in which the adsorbate adheres
to the surface only through Van der Waals
(weak intermolecular) interactions, which are
also responsible for the non-ideal behaviour of
real gases.
• Chemisorption in this kind of adsorption, the
gas molecules or atoms are held to the solid by
chemical bonds. For example hydrogen is
chemisorbed on nickel.

9. S.No Physical adsorption Chemical adsorption
1.
Caused by intermolecular forces Caused by chemical bond formation
2.
Heat of adsorption is small Heat of adsorption is large
3.
Reversible Irreversible
4.
Forms multimolecular layer Forms unimolecular layer
5.
Decreases with increasing temperature Increases with increasing of temperature
6.
Depends on nature of gas Much more specific than physical
adsorption
7.
Increase of pressure increases adsorption,
decrease of pressure causes of desorption
Change of pressure has no such effects

10. Selectivity of adsorption: Criteria
• Molecular weight or size
• Solute shape
• Polarity
• Electrostatic charge
Interactions involved in adsorption
 Van der Waals forces
 Electrostatic interactions
 Hydrophobic interactions
 Hydrogen bonding
 Chemical bond formation
(chemisorption)
Steric
Chemical
properties
Non-covalent
interactions

11. Van der Waals Forces

12. Hydrogen Bonding

13. Long range electrostatic interactions

15. Agnew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2001, 40, 2382-2426
Leonard J. Prins, David N. Reinhoudt, Peter Timmerman
Non-covalent interactions are weak !

16. Factors influencing adsorption;
Adsorption of gases by solids
1.Adsorption and surface area
2.Nature of gas
3.Heats of adsorption
4.Reversible character
5.Effect of temperature
6.Effect of pressure
7.Thickness of adsorbed layer of gas

17. 1.Adsorption and surface area
Adsorption being a surface phenomenon, the extent of adsorption depends on
the surface area. Increase in the surface area of the adsorbent, increase the
total amount of the gas adsorbed.
2. Nature of gas
The amount of gas adsorbed by a solid depends on the nature of the gas. In
general, more Easily liquefiable gas is more readily adsorbed.
3. Heats of adsorption
Heat of adsorption is defined as the energy liberated when 1gm mole of a gas
is adsorbed on the solid surface. In physical adsorption, gas molecules
concentrate on the solid surface. Thus it is similar to the condensation of a gas
to liquid. Therefore, adsorption like condensation is an exothermic process.

18. 4. Reversible character
Physical adsorption is reversible process. The gas adsorbed onto a solid can be removed under
reverse conditions of temperature and pressure.
5. Effect of temperature
Physical adsorption occurs rapidly at low temperature and decreases with increasing temperature.
Chemisorption, like most chemical changes, generally increases with temperature. Thus a rise of
temperature can often cause physical adsorption to change to Chemisorption.
6. Effect of pressure
Pressure leads to increase of adsorption and decrease of pressure causes desorption.
7. Thickness of adsorbed layer of gas
The physically adsorbed gas forms only one molecular thick layer. However, above a certain
pressure, multimolecular thick layer is formed.

19. Adsorbents
• Natural or synthetic
• Amorphous or microcrystalline
structure
• Very high specific surface area
• Examples:
• Charcoal
• Kaolin (layered silicate
mineral)
• Bentonite
• Activated carbon
• Silica gel
• Activated alumina
• Zeolite (molecular sieves),

20. Structure of Adsorbents
Zeolites
Silica gel
Activated carbon

21. Applications of adsorption
1. Production of high vacuum
If a partially evacuated vessel is connected to a container of activated charcoal
cooled with liquid air, the charcoal adsorbs all the gas molecules in the vessel. This
results in a very vacuum.
2. Gas mask
Gas masks are devices contain an adsorbent (activated charcoal) or a series of
adsorbents; these adsorbents remove poisonous gases by adsorption and purify the
air for breathing.
3. Heterogeneous catalysis
In a heterogeneous catalysis, the molecules of the reactant are adsorbed at the catalyst
surface, where they form an “adsorption complex”. This decomposes to form the
product molecules which then take off from the surface.

22. Applications of adsorption
4. Removal of coloring matter from solutions
Animal charcoal removes colors of solution by adsorbing colored impurities thus in the manufacture of
cane-sugar, the colored solution is clarified by treating with animal charcoal or activated charcoal.
5. Chromatographic analysis
Mixtures of small quantities of organic substances can be separated with the help of chromatography
which involves the principles of selective adsorption.
6. Gas separation using molecular sieves by pressure swing adsorption.
7. De-hydration or de-humidification of gases.
8. Water purification by deionization and ion-exchange.

23. Adsoprtion
• Advantages
– High selectivity (e.g. affinity
adsorption)
– Ability to handle very dilute
feed concentrations
• Disadvantages
– It is a surface phenomenon
i.e. the interior of adsorbent
is not available
– Batch or semi-batch
operations only
– Adsorbent regenerated
– Loss of product quality