What is "sorption"

n. (context sciences English) Either of the processes of absorption and adsorption.

n. the process in which one substance takes up or holds another (by either absorption or adsorption)

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.