Convective instability driven by surface tension is analyzed in an initially quiescent water absorbing ammonia gas using the linear stability theory. The propagation theory is adapated to find the critical conditions of the onset of solutal Maragoni convection. In this theory, the solutal penetration depth is chosen as the length scale factor. The results show that the liquid layer becomes more stable with decreasing the Schmidt number It is interesting that for a smaller Biot number than 100, the system becomes stable with decreasing Bi but for a larger Bi, it becomes unstable with decreasing Bi.