Adsorption at the Liquid Interface from the Multicomponent Solution

Abstract

In many technical and natural phenomena, adsorption at the interface actually takes place when the bulk solution adjacent to the interface contains several solute components. The organic and inorganic solutes present in the bulk may be nonelectrolytes or electrolytes, so that the solution also contains ionic and nonionic species of solutes. The aqueous solvent on slight dissociation may also introduce H+ and OH− in the bulk system. The organic solutes in the bulk system are usually surface-active, so that most of the time they accumulate in the interfacial phase as positive excesses. In the absence of organic solute, inorganic salts usually accumulate at the interface as negative excesses. But in the presence of organic amphiphiles, the inorganic cations and anions may accumulate either as negative or positive excesses depending upon the nature of the surface charge in the so-called interfacial double layer.