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.

References

↑ 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.

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