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News tagged with colloids

A crowning success for crayfish

Nature sometimes copies its own particularly successful developments. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the Ben-Gurion University at Beer-Sheva in ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 21, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Particles magnetically 'click' to form superstructures

(Phys.org) -- Geomag, the popular children's toy, contains small metal spheres that can be magnetically connected with a click to build a variety of towers, bridges, and sculptures. In a new study, scientists ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast feature

Scientists evaluate different antimicrobial metals for use in water filters

Porous ceramic water filters are often coated with colloidal silver, which prevents the growth of microbes trapped in the micro- and nano-scale pores of the filter. Other metals such as copper and zinc have also been shown ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Researchers discover why atoms in solids show a preference for certain structures

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nature likes some symmetries, but dislikes others. Ordered solids often display a so-called 6-fold rotation symmetry. To achieve this kind of symmetry, the atoms in a plane surround themselves ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 30, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (21) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Triblock spheres provide a simple path to complex structures

University of Illinois materials scientists have developed a simple, generalizable technique to fabricate complex structures that assemble themselves.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 19, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Physicists Find a World of Motion In the Mystery of Aging Glass

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists super-cooled a liquid into glass in order to observe the slowing of particles. It's a material that still perplexes researchers despite thousands of years of household and industrial use.

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Sep 19, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (12) | comments 1

A golden bullet for cancer: Nanoparticles provide a targeted version of photothermal therapy for cancer

In a lecture he delivered in 1906, the German physician Paul Ehrlich coined the term Zuberkugel, or "magic bullet," as shorthand for a highly targeted medical treatment.

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Mar 12, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers develop new method for the production of microlenses

Inspired from Mother Nature: The body of the brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii is studded with tiny crystalline lenses made of calcium carbonate. Microlenses like these are of great interest technologically, yet th ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Anti-malaria drug synthesized with the help of oxygen and light

The most effective anti-malaria drug can now be produced inexpensively and in large quantities. This means that it will be possible to provide medication for the 225 million malaria patients in developing ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Researchers Record First Real-Time Direct Observations of Nanocrystal Growth in Solution (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The veil is being lifted from the once unseen world of molecular activity. Not so long ago only the final products were visible and scientists were forced to gauge the processes behind those ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Aug 07, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 0

Making complex fluids look simple

An international research team has successfully developed a widely applicable method for discovering the physical foundations of complex fluids for the first time. Researchers at the University of Vienna and ...

Physics / Soft Matter

created Jun 01, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Plant with 'eggbeater' testure inspires waterproof coating

A floating weed that clogs waterways around the world has at least one redeeming feature: It's inspired a high-tech waterproof coating intended for boats and submarines.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 10, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

C60 could form a new kind of gel

(PhysOrg.com) -- C60, the spherical carbon molecule also known as a buckminsterfullerene, has intrigued scientists for its unique properties and potential applications in nanotechnology and electronics. Now scient ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Feb 17, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (9) | comments 4 | with audio podcast weblog

A sweet defense against lethal bacteria

(PhysOrg.com) -- There is now a promising vaccine candidate for combating the pathogen which causes one of the most common and dangerous hospital infections. An international team of scientists from the Max ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 31, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Osmosis in colloidal suspensions

(PhysOrg.com) -- It is very difficult to overestimate the importance of colloidal suspensions. Besides being an integral part of our everyday life (food, cosmetics, drugs), they also serve as an excellent ...

Physics / Soft Matter

created May 18, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Colloid

A colloid is a type of chemical mixture where one substance is dispersed evenly throughout another. The particles of the dispersed substance are only suspended in the mixture, unlike a solution, where they are completely dissolved within. This occurs because the particles in a colloid are larger than in a solution - small enough to be dispersed evenly and maintain a homogenous appearance, but large enough to scatter light and not dissolve. Because of this dispersal, some colloids have the appearance of solutions. A colloidal system consists of two separate phases: a dispersed phase (or internal phase) and a continuous phase (or dispersion medium). A colloidal system may be solid, liquid, or gaseous.

Many familiar substances are colloids, as shown in the chart below. As well as these naturally occurring colloids, modern chemical process industries utilise high shear mixing technology to create novel colloids.

The subsequent table compares particle(s) diameters of colloids, homogeneous and heterogeneous mixture:

Thus, colloid suspensions are intermediate between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures. They are sometimes classified as either "homogeneous" or "heterogeneous" based upon their appearance.

The dispersed-phase particles have a diameter of between approximately 5 and 200 nanometers. Such particles are normally invisible to an optical microscope, though their presence can be confirmed with the use of an ultramicroscope or an electron microscope. Homogeneous mixtures with a dispersed phase in this size range may be called colloidal aerosols, colloidal emulsions, colloidal foams, colloidal dispersions, or hydrosols. The dispersed-phase particles or droplets are largely affected by the surface chemistry present in the colloid.

Some colloids are translucent because of the Tyndall effect, which is the scattering of light by particles in the colloid. Other colloids may be opaque or have a slight color.

Colloidal systems (also called colloidal solutions or colloidal suspensions) are the subject of interface and colloid science. This field of study was introduced in 1861 by Scottish scientist Thomas Graham.

For more information about Colloid, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.