Dozens of papers have been published recently describing adsorption processes from solutions on to solid surfaces, but a certain lack of understanding of this problem is still observed. This article deals with the description of adsorption from binary solutions of non-electrolytes on to solids. This description covers adsorption both on homogeneous and heterogeneous surfaces from ideal and non-ideal liquid mixtures. Some important factors determining the adsorption process, i.e. the heterogeneity of the solid surface, interactions between the species in the bulk and surface phases, differences in molecular sizes of the adsorbate molecules, etc., have been discussed. The main attention has been focused on the Dubinin–Radushkevich equation and its application in the description of adsorption from solutions on to energetically, heterogeneous adsorbents. Numerous model calculations have been reported for this equation and several experimental systems have been analyzed. The application of the Dubinin–Radushkevich equation in characterizing liquid adsorption on to various carbons has been demonstrated.