06932 IUPAC Gold Book - distribution isotherm 10.1351/goldbook.DT06932 DT06932 current related: stripping isotherm synonym: extraction isotherm 1 The equilibrium relation between the concentration of a sample component in the stationary phase \(c_{\rm{S}}\), and in the mobile phase \(c_{\rm{M}}\), expressed as a function \(c_{\rm{S}}=f(c_{\rm{M}})\). In some versions of chromatography, a distribution isotherm can be seen as a partition isotherm, an adsorption isotherm, or a combination of these, depending on the mechanism of separation. The relation can be influenced also by concentrations of other sample components. \(c_{\rm{S}}\) and \(c_{\rm{M}}\) are usually expressed per unit volume of the phase; \(c_{\rm{S}}\) may also be expressed per mass of the dry solid phase or per unit surface area. adsorption isotherm https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/AT06934 chromatography https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C01075 mobile phase https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/M03952 partition isotherm https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/PT06933 stationary phase https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/S05949 PAC, 1996, 68, 1591. 'Nomenclature for non-linear chromatography (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 1592 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668081591) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/DT06932/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/DT06932/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/DT06932/plain Citation: 'distribution isotherm' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.DT06932 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-04-08T00:25:36+00:00