SORPTION PROPERTIES OF SELECTED ORGANIC MATERIALS

The surface properties of inorganic materials discussed in Chapters 2-5 can be tailored for specific applications by deposition of a thin layer of modifier (adsorption or grafting). 

This leads to composite materials whose adsorption properties are chiefly defined by the modifier and the role of the chemistry of the core material is rather insignificant. 

Therefore the relationship (emphasized in Chapters 2-5) between the bulk properties of the material and its adsorption properties is not applicable to modified adsorbents. 

From this point of view all organic materials discussed in this chapter are in some sense modified materials, namely, their adsorption properties are defined by the surface treatment they underwent. Therefore, the adsorption properties of such materials reported in the literature, including the pH dependent surface charging, should be attributed to specific sample (whose surface treatment was more or less carefully controlled) rather than treated as generic properties of the studied core material. 

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