Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
In the present paper Bethe's approximation is applied to the statistical treatment of the adsorption of dipoles considering (a) the electrostatic forces alone, and (b) the electrostatic and van der Waals forces jointly. In each case formulae are obtained for the adsorption isotherm and for the variation of the heat of adsorption with the fraction of surface covered. In case (a) the heat curves are compared with those obtained by Wang who used a different approximation to take into account the electrostatic interactions due to particles adsorbed on outer sites. The curves are of the same general shape; sources of differences in them are discussed. In case (b) the results are compared with those obtained by Roberts using a different method. This treatment confirms his result that the electrostatic and van der Waals forces give contributions to the variation of the heat of adsorption which are of opposite sign and almost counterbalance one another, so that the resultant variation in the heat of adsorption is very much less than would be expected from a consideration of forces of one type only. This comparison shows further that the distribution of particles on the surface, which is taken into account in the statistical method used in this paper, has a considerable effect on the variation of the heat of adsorption.
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