How Adsorption occurs?
The process of adsorption arises due to presence of unbalanced or residual forces at the surface of liquid or solid phase. These unbalanced residual forces have tendency to attract and retain the molecular species with which it comes in contact with the surface. Adsorption is essentially a surface phenomenon. Adsorption is a term which is completely different from Absorption .While absorption means uniform distribution of the substance throughout the bulk, adsorption essentially happens at the surface of the substance. When both Adsorption and Absorption processes take place simultaneously, the process is called sorption. Adsorption process involves two components Adsorbent and Adsorbate. Adsorbent is the substance on the surface of which adsorption takes place.Adsorbate is the substance which is being adsorbed on the surface of adsorbent. Adsorbate gets adsorbed. Adsorbate + Adsorbent gives rise to Adsorption Oxygen molecules (red) adsorb on a bimetallic surface of platinum (purple) a
