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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Adsorption?

Also known as: adsorbate · adsorbent · desorption

Definition 16.1 University Chemistry — Year 3 · Chapter 16 — Surfaces, Adsorption and Heterogeneous Catalysis

Adsorption is the accumulation of molecules of a gas or a solute on the surface of a solid or a liquid. The molecule that adsorbs is the adsorbate, the solid the adsorbent; the reverse process is desorption.

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