Adsorption is one of the areas that have had an amazing growth in the last decades around the world, mainly as a solution for the contamination caused by different industrial systems, seriously affecting the environment. Many adsorption scientists have put their best effort in order to solve and minimize the contamination of our environment. Iberoamerica has not been an exception, and the scientific community has made studies in every level to give solutions to this problem. One way the scientists have chosen to solve the problem is by intense scientific collaboration between several groups in the region. This resulted in a need for Latin American investigators to meet regularly to discuss the problems and offer their development in adsorption and related areas. In consequence, we have met together for the second time in the IBA-2, this time in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) to share this knowledge.

This special issue is the result of a selection of some papers submitted in 2nd Ibero-American Symposium on Adsorption, realized between 26 and 30 of April of 2016 in the city of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). These papers were evaluated according to the normal journal standards with outstanding international evaluators.

This meeting was characterized by a large participation from the academic community, which is working in adsorption in Iberoamerica, but also countries as Italy, Poland, and Germany. The scientific level, the friendship, and friendly mood were the daily scenario in this event. The high amount of participants and contributions resulted in an intense program with full days of presentations and discussions, which both participants and invited professors always accepted gladly. Some 300 contributions were submitted to IBA-2 in total, of which 200 were presented in the category of poster and 100 in oral.

Additionally, 17 international well-known speakers were invited:

Dr. Alexander Neimark, Rutgers School of Engineering, United States of America

Dr. Alirio Rodrígues, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

Dr. Diana Azevedo, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil

Dr. Elena Basaldella, Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina

Dr. Enrique Rodríguez Castellón, Universidad de Málaga, Spain

Dr. Gino Baron, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Dr. Guillermo Calleja, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain

Dr. Jean Rouquerol, Université Aix-Marseille, France

Dr. Karim Sapag, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Argentina

Dr. Liliana Giraldo Gutiérrez, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia

Dr. Matthias Thommes, Quantachrome Instruments, United States of America

Dr. Philip Llewellyn, Aix-Marseille Université, France

Dr. Raúl Ocampo Pérez, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis de Potosí, México

Dr. Roberto Leyva Ramos, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis de Potosí, México

Dr. Sofia Calero, Universidad Pablo Olavide, Spain

Dr. Suresh Bhatia, The University of Queensland, Australia

Dr. Teresa Bandosz, City College of New York, United States of America

These speakers offered their knowledge in each conference that they gave, and participation in the “Giorgio Zgrablich” school, that took place during the event. This school was made in honour to the scientist, Professor and Argentinian friend Giorgio Zgrablich (passed away), who left a huge legacy all around the world, in particular by helping different groups in Iberoamerica. His scientific quality, teaching, and human sensibility guided people like us, who had the honour to know him.

The main objective of the IBA-2 was certainly reached: to establish new scientific collaborations between the groups that hardly knew each other, and consolidate the partnerships between those that were already actively collaborating. It is the real value of the event celebrated in Cartagena de Indias.

After the 1st Ibero-American Symposium on Adsorption (IBA1) in Recife (Brazil) in May 2012, organized with the 9th Brazilian Meeting on Adsorption (EBA-9) by Universidad Federal do Pernanbuco, Universidad Federal do Ceará (Brazil) and Universidad Nacional de San Luis (Argentina), it was decided to continue this symposium series, with IBA-3 in Spain in 2018, in collaboration with Reunion Ibérica de Adsorción (RIA).

Lastly, I want to thank the persons who made this event possible. First of all, the professors who travelled from all parts of the world to share their knowledge and experience with the students; to every participant for their enthusiastic participation in the event; to each member of the national committee for all the time spent in order to make ours guest feel at home, thanks a lot!

Also thanks to Universidad de la Guajira, and my colleague and friend Dr. Marlon Bastidas (Co-chairman of the event) for believing in this project, without whom this could not have been possible. A special thank-you to Dr. Liliana Giraldo (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) to live with this event for 1 year and helping that everything went well. My sincere thanks to Universidad de los Andes, and especially the Chemistry Department for their support and confidence in this event.

Finally, I want to thank to Professor Dr. Gino Baron, Editor in Chief, of Adsorption for the opportunity given, to devote a special issue to IBA-2, to show to the scientific community the results of the effort that Ibero-American scientists make every single day in their laboratories.

Juán Carlos Moreno-Piraján

Guest Editor