title: Sorption
text: # Sorption
  
  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" (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.
  
  