Molecular Dimerisation in a Multilayer Adsorption Phase on Homogeneous Surfaces of a Solid Adsorbent

Abstract

Abstract Continuing the discussion on the description of adsorbate-adsorbate association on homogeneous surfaces of solids, an attempt was made to formulate an analytical form of adsorption equation for a multilayer adsorption phase. The validity of Berezin’s and Kiselev’s assumptions concerning the independence of adsorption in further layers from the model of the phenomenon in the first of them was discussed. The fundamental validity of this assumption has been demonstrated, simultaneously ridding it of its arbitrary character. The main aim of the study was to demonstrate the possibility of formulating a description assuming molecule association in the entire adsorption phase (and not only in the first layer). Theoretical considerations are confined to the case of dimerisation in the concentration range thus warranting the approximation characteristic of the Berezin and Kiselev model. The obtained final adsorption equation exhibits physically acceptable boundary properties; with adequate assumptions it amounts to the Brunauer, Emmett and Teller equation, the equation formulated earlier by one of the authors of this paper or the Langmuir equation.