The adsorption or adhesion of large particles (proteins, colloids, cells,
>...) at the liquid-solid interface plays an important role in many diverse
applications. Despite the apparent complexity of the process, two features are
particularly important: 1) the adsorption is often irreversible on experimental
time scales and 2) the adsorption rate is limited by geometric blockage from
previously adsorbed particles. A coarse-grained description that encompasses
these two properties is provided by sequential adsorption models whose simplest
example is the random sequential adsorption (RSA) process. In this article, we
review the theoretical formalism and tools that allow the systematic study of
kinetic and structural aspects of these sequential adsorption models. We also
show how the reference RSA model may be generalized to account for a variety of
experimental features including particle anisotropy, polydispersity, bulk
diffusive transport, gravitational effects, surface-induced conformational and
orientational change, desorption, and multilayer formation. In all cases, the
significant theoretical results are presented and their accuracy (compared to
computer simulation) and applicability (compared to experiment) are discussed.Comment: 51 pages, 18 Figures, to appear in a special volume entitled
"Adhesion of Submicron Particles on Solid Surfaces" of Colloids and Surfaces
A, guest-edited by V. Privman.to appear in a special volume entitle
