GENERALIZED RANDOM SEQUENTIAL ADSORPTION

Adsorption of hard spherical particles onto a flat uniform surface is analyzed by using generalized random sequential adsorption (RSA) models. These models are defined by releasing the condition of immobility present in the usual RSA rules to allow for desorption or surface diffusion. Contrary to the simple RSA case, generalized RSA processes are no longer irreversible and the system formed by the adsorbed particles on the surface may reach an equilibrium state. We show by using a distribution function approach that the kinetics of such processes can be described by means of an exact infinite hierarchy of equations reminiscent of the Kirkwood-Salsburg hierarchy for systems at equilibrium. We illustrate the way in which the systems produced by adsorption/desorption and by adsorption/diffusion evolve between the two limits represented by "simple RSA" and "equilibrium" by considering approximate solutions in terms of truncated density expansions. © 1990 American Institute of Physics.