ADSORPTION OF POLYMER ON DISPERSION PARTICLES

The kinetic behavior of the adsorption of polymer molecules onto the surfaces of dispersed particles is examined theoretically. Under the assumptions that the surface coverage of a particle by polymer is low and the adsorption is irreversible, the distribution of the probability of the number of adsorbed polymer molecules can be approximated by a Poisson distribution (Kislenko et al., J. Colloid Interface Sci. 156, 508, 1993). A more detailed analysis reveals that, regardless of the reversibility of the adsorption process, a binomial distribution appears to be more appropriate. The deviation of the approximate Poisson distribution from the corresponding binomial distribution depends on the number of sites on a particle, S. In particular, the Poisson distribution is close to the latter only for a certain range of S; the former does not approach to the latter as S increases infinitely. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.