{{Short description|Physical or chemical process by which one substance becomes attached to another}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}} thumb|500px|Gas–liquid absorption (a) and liquid–solid adsorption (b) mechanism. Blue spheres are solute molecules.
'''Sorption''' is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes attached to another. Specific cases of sorption are treated in the following articles: ; Absorption: "the incorporation of a substance in one state into another of a different state"<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Crini|editor-first=Grégorio|editor2=Badot, Pierre-Marie|title=Sorption processes and pollution : conventional and non-conventional sorbents for pollutant removal from wastewaters|date=2010|publisher=Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté|location=Besançon|isbn=978-2848673042|page=43 }}</ref> (e.g., liquids being absorbed by a solid or gases being absorbed by a liquid); ; Adsorption: The physical adherence or bonding of ions and molecules onto the surface of another phase (e.g., reagents adsorbed to a solid catalyst surface); ; Ion exchange: An exchange of ions between two electrolytes or between an electrolyte solution and a complex.
The reverse of sorption is desorption.
==Sorption rate== The adsorption and absorption rate of a diluted solute in gas or liquid solution to a surface or interface can be calculated using Fick's laws of diffusion.
==See also== * Sorption isotherm
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Physical chemistry