Give reason why a finely divided substance is more effective as an adsorbent.
Explanation In adsorption, the adsorbate molecules are linked to the surface of the adsorbent only. It has nothing to do with the bulk of the adsorbent molecules. Even If we have a solid adsorbent that is very big in size, only the molecules present on the surface of the adsorbent are useful for carrying out adsorption. While the molecules present in the bulk of the adsorbent are never exposed to the adsorbate molecules and hence despite having a large-sized adsorbent, we’re not able to use it completely for adsorption purposes. When the adsorbent is finely divided, it enables the bulk particles available for carrying out the adsorption. This way, the total area available to work as an adsorbent increase, and hence finely divided substance is a more efficient adsorbent.
