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Lynne Wong's PhD thesis

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3) Thermodynamic, water in equilibrium with its surroundings, at a certain relative<br />

humidity and temperature.<br />

Moreover, in a biological system, water is believed to exist with either unhindered or<br />

hindered mobility, referred to as free or bound water respectively. ‘Bound water’ is<br />

considered as that portion of water held in the material which exhibits physical properties<br />

significantly different from those of free water or bulk water (Berlin, 1981), through<br />

stronger hydrogen bonding than liquid water. Some of the characteristics of bound water<br />

are lower vapour pressure, high binding energy as measured during dehydration, reduced<br />

mobility, unfreezability at low temperature and unavailability as a solvent such as in the<br />

definition of Brix-free water (Labuza and Busk, 1979). Although each of these<br />

characteristics has been used to define bound water, each gives a different value for the<br />

amount of water which is bound. As a result of this, as well as the complexities and<br />

interactions of the binding forces involved, no universal definition of bound water has been<br />

adopted.<br />

5.2 TYPES OF ADSORPTION AND ADSORPTION ISOTHERMS<br />

In this study the interaction of sugar cane fibres with water was studied. When a solid<br />

surface (in this case the sugar cane fibre) is exposed to a fluid (i.e. gas or liquid, and in this<br />

case water) adsorption occurs. It is understood to mean the increase in the density of the<br />

fluid in the vicinity of an interface. With certain systems, e.g. some metals exposed to<br />

hydrogen, oxygen or water, the adsorption process is accompanied by absorption, i.e. the<br />

penetration of the fluid into the solid phase. In such a case the term sorption is used and, in<br />

particular, when the adsorption and absorption processes cannot be distinguished<br />

experimentally.<br />

Distinction was made in the early 1930s between physical adsorption (physisorption) in<br />

which weak Van der Waals interactions are involved and chemical adsorption<br />

(chemisorption) in which the adsorbed molecules are attached by strong chemical bonding.<br />

The characteristic features distinguishing between the two types of adsorption may be<br />

summarised as follows:<br />

(a)<br />

Physisorption is a general phenomenon with a relatively low degree of specificity,<br />

whereas chemisorption is dependent on the reactivity of the adsorbent (solid<br />

170

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