Adsorption

Abstract

Since the first theory of adsorption was proposed by Irving Langmuir in 1918, the body of practical and theoretical knowledge about adsorption has grown significantly. For example, large‐scale adsorption‐based processes allow separation of mixtures, such as multicomponent gas streams, which are impossible or too costly to be carried out by other operations. Interfacial interactions play key roles in heterogeneous catalysis, chromatographic separation, membrane filtration, environmental remediation, and better understanding of the adsorption phenomenon support development of new industrial materials and processes. In this article, fundamental aspects related to adsorption, from thermodynamics at molecular level to column dynamics, are reviewed. Developments in the field, particularly related to novel materials and integrated multiscale approaches in process design, are also described.