Association colloids phase behaviour

In the previous section, non-equilibrium behaviour was discussed, which is observed for particles with a deep minimum in the particle interactions at contact. In this final section, some examples of equilibrium phase behaviour in concentrated colloidal suspensions will be presented. Here we are concerned with purely repulsive particles (hard or soft spheres), or with particles with attractions of moderate strength and range (colloid-polymer and colloid-colloid mixtures). Although we shall focus mainly on equilibrium aspects, a few comments will be made about the associated kinetics as well [69, 70]. 

It should be noted that surfactants in solution are usually classed as association colloids . In this book they are considered in a separate chapter (Chapter 4) because a detailed consideration of their phase behaviour, properties and applications is merited by their industrial importance. Biological amphiphiles (lipids) are also considered in Chapter 4. 

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