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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 suspensions are the subject of interface and colloid science.
In chemistry, a suspension is a heterogeneous mixture of a fluid that contains solid particles sufficiently large for sedimentation. The particles may be visible to the naked eye , usually must be larger than one micrometer , and will eventually settle , although the mixture is only classified as a suspension when and while the particles have ...
A colloid is a heterogeneous mixture where the dispersed particles have at least in one direction a dimension roughly between 1 nm and 1 μm or that in a system discontinuities are found at distances of that order. [8] A suspension is a heterogeneous dispersion of larger particles in a medium. Unlike solutions and colloids, if left undisturbed ...
In addition, a heterogeneous mixture may have a uniform (e.g. a colloid) or non-uniform (e.g. a pencil) composition. Several solid substances, such as salt and sugar , dissolve in water to form homogeneous mixtures or " solutions ", in which there are both a solute (dissolved substance) and a solvent (dissolving medium) present.
The overlap between the diffuse layers of two approaching particles results in a repulsive double layer interaction potential, which leads to particle stabilization. When salt is added to the suspension, the electrical double layer repulsion is screened, and van der Waals attraction become dominant and induce fast aggregation.
The Tyndall effect is light scattering by particles in a colloid such as a very fine suspension (a sol). Also known as Tyndall scattering, it is similar to Rayleigh scattering, in that the intensity of the scattered light is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength, so blue light is scattered much more strongly than red light.
Colloids are formed by phase separation, though not all phase separations forms colloids - for example oil and water can form separated layers under gravity rather than remaining as microscopic droplets in suspension. A common form of spontaneous phase separation is termed spinodal decomposition; it is described by the Cahn–Hilliard equation.
Complex fluids are mixtures that have a coexistence between two phases: solid–liquid (suspensions or solutions of macromolecules such as polymers), solid–gas , liquid–gas or liquid–liquid . They exhibit unusual mechanical responses to applied stress or strain due to the geometrical constraints that the phase coexistence imposes.