PHYSICAL PHARMACEUTICS

SEMINAR
Satyam Sachan
18BPH1042
Topic-Adsorption at solid interface
Reference- Pawar.H “ Textbook of physical pharmaceutics-II”
Everest publishing house 2nd edn Pg no- 153-165
 INTRODUCTION
• Adsorption-is a surface process that leads to transfer of a molecule from a
fluid bulk to solid surface.
• This can occur because of physical forces or by chemical bonds. Usually it is
reversible (the reverse process is called desorption); then it is responsible not
only for a subtraction of substances but also for release.
• In most of the cases, this process is described at the equilibrium by means of
some equations that quantify the amount of substance attached on the
surface given the concentration in the fluid.
• The solid on the surface of which gas or a liquid molecules accumulate is
called ‘adsorbent’.
• The substance (gas or liquid) whose molecules accumulate on the solid
surface is called ‘adsorbate’. Non-adsorbed gas is called ‘adsorptive’.
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-GAS INTERFACE)

• Any solid is capable of adsorbing a certain amount of gas, the

• extent of adsorption at equilibrium depends on:
• temperature, the pressure of the gas and the effective surface area
• of the solid.
• The most notable adsorbents are, therefore, highly porous solids,
• such as charcoal and silica gel (which have large internal surface
• areas) and finely divided powders.
• -The relationship at a given temperature between the equilibrium
Amount of gas adsorbed and the pressure of the gas is known as the
adsorption isotherm
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID
INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-GAS INTERFACE)
• When adsorption takes place, the gas molecules are restricted to two-
dimensional motion. Gas adsorption processes are, therefore,
accompanied by a decrease in entropy.
• Since adsorption also involves a decrease in free energy,
• then, from the thermodynamic relationship,
• ΔG = ΔH-TΔS
• it is evident that ΔHads. must be negative - i.e. the
• adsorption of gases and vapours on solids is always an
• exothermic process.
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID
INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-GAS INTERFACE)
• Types of adsorption
• 1> Physical or Van der Waal’s adsorption
• 2> Chemical adsorption or chemisorption.
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID
INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-GAS INTERFACE)
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-GAS INTERFACE)

• ADSORPTION ISOTHERMS Basics

• Adsorption process is usually studied through graphs known as: Adsorption
Isotherm.
• The amount of adsorbate on the adsorbent as a function if its pressure (gas) or
• concentration (liquid) at constant T
• In the given Adsorption Isotherm , after saturation pressure Ps adsorption does
not increases
• Vacancies on the surface of the adsorbent are
• limited, at Ps a stage is reached when all the
• sites are occupied and further increase in
• pressure does not increases adsorption extent.
ADSORPTION AT SOLID INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-GAS INTERFACE)
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-LIQUID INTERFACE)
• The theoretical treatment of adsorption from solution, however, is, in
general, more complicated than that of gas adsorption.
• Adsorption from solution always involves competition between solute(s) and
solvent or between the components of a liquid mixture for the adsorption
sites. Consider, for example, a binary liquid. Mixture in contact with a solid.
• Zero adsorption refers to uniform mixture composition right up to the solid
surface.
• If the proportion of one of the components at the surface is
• Greater than its proportion in bulk, then that component is
• positively adsorbed and, consequently, the other component is negatively
adsorbed.
ADSORPTION AT SOLID INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-LIQUID INTERFACE)
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-LIQUID INTERFACE)
• In adsorption from solution, physical adsorption is far more common than
chemisorption. However, chemisorption is sometimes possible;for
example, fatty acids are chemisorbed from benzene solutions on nickel
and platinum catalysts.

• Solute adsorption is usually restricted to a monomolecular layer, since the

solid-solute interactions, although strong enough to compete successfully
with the solid-solvent interactions in the first adsorbed monolayer, do not
do so in subsequent monolayers.
 ADSORPTION AT SOLID INTERFACE
(THE SOLID-LIQUID INTERFACE)
• The Langmuir and Freundlich equations are frequently applied to
adsorption from solution data, for which they take the form:

Respectively, where x is the amount of solute adsorbed by a mass m of

solid, c is the equilibrium solution concentration, and a, k and n are
constants , (x/m)max monolayer capacity .
Adsorption from solution has the merit of being experimentally less
demanding than gas adsorption; however, the problems in interpretation
are far greater.
Thank You