Adsorption is a process where a substance in a gas or liquid attaches to a solid. It can be used to clean up hazardous waste or purify drinking water. Natural adsorption occurs in the ocean and early humans used it to purify food. Adsorption filters can be used for industrial and commercial purposes, such as improving the taste of water or removing harmful chemicals.
Adsorption is a process, similar to absorption, by which a substance in a gas or liquid attaches to a solid. The substance may be a pollutant, called an adsorbate, which is attracted to the surface of a special solid. Adsorption occurs naturally, but industrialists have perfected adsorption methods to clean up hazardous waste or purify drinking water.
Tiny chemical particles suspended in another phase of matter, i.e. in the air as a gas or in the water as a liquid, are sometimes considered contaminants. These tiny particles can be separated from that phase, called an adsorbent, to enter a different phase. A material of another phase, such as solid carbon, preferentially affects these particles and binds the adsorbate to its surface. The remaining air or liquid has been purified. This differs from absorption in which the particles never change phase, but enter the pores of the solid together with the accompanying air or water.
Natural or organic adsorption methods occur continuously. For example, the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which affects climate and air temperature. Early humans observed that if they burned a piece of bone completely, they could put the bone into food mixtures, such as sugar water, and collect pollutant particles that weren’t edible, thus purifying the food. Colored particles in our visible spectrum, as well as those with strong odors, are easier to absorb.
It’s important to harness the power of adsorption to combat modern chemical hazards. Some solids are ideal for adsorption. They have a lot of surface area for their volume because they are pockmarked with micropores. The industrial and commercial uses of adsorption filters vary. For example, carbon improves the taste of cold drinking water. A carbon filter can be heated to clean the surface of adsorbates and reused. Activated Alumina removes harmful chemicals like fluoride and arsenic from liquids. Synthetic resins can clean up highly dangerous spills, such as nerve gas, in areas that may have high temperatures, such as near explosives.
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