Adsorbita

Adsorbita is a term used in surface science and chemistry to describe a substance that has accumulated on the surface of a solid (the adsorbent) by the process of adsorption. In English, the standard term for the adsorbed species is adsorbate, while adsorbent refers to the surface or material that hosts the adsorption. Adsorbita can refer to atoms, molecules, or ions that reside on a surface and form an interfacial layer.

Adsorption occurs through two main mechanisms. Physisorption involves weak van der Waals interactions and is usually reversible, while chemisorption involves the formation of chemical bonds and can be more specific and less easily reversed. The extent of adsorption depends on temperature, pressure or concentration, the surface area and porosity of the adsorbent, and the chemical nature of both adsorbate and adsorbent. Higher temperatures often promote desorption, whereas higher pressures or concentrations favor adsorption.

Adsorption is commonly described by isotherms. Langmuir isotherms assume monolayer adsorption on a homogeneous surface, while Freundlich isotherms describe adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces. The BET (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller) model extends Langmuir to multilayer adsorption and is widely used to estimate the surface area of porous materials from gas adsorption data.

Techniques to study adsorbates include calorimetry to measure heat changes, spectroscopy to identify adsorbates and bonds, and surface-sensitive methods such as quartz crystal microbalance and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Common examples include water or organic molecules adsorbed on activated carbon, gases like CO2 on porous materials for carbon capture, and catalytic intermediates on metal surfaces. Adsorbita and adsorbates play key roles in environmental remediation, energy storage, catalysis, and sensor technologies.