Coagulation inert electrolytes

Inert electrolytes, i.e., ions which are not specifically adsorbed, compress the double layer and thus reduce the stability of the colloids (Fig. 7.4). A critical coagulation concentration, Cs or ccc, can be defined (see Eqs. (4) and (5) in Table 7.3) which is independent of the concentration of the colloids (Schulze-Hardy Rule). 

The critical coagulation concentration (c.c.c.) of an indifferent (inert) electrolyte (i.e. the concentration of the electrolyte which is just sufficient to coagulate a lyophobic sol to an arbitrarily defined extent in an arbitrarily chosen time) shows considerable dependence upon the charge number of its counter-ions. In contrast, it is practically independent of the specific character of the various ions, the charge number of the co-ions and the concentration of the sol, and only moderately dependent on the nature of the sol. These generalisations are illustrated in Table 8.1, and are known as the Schulze-Hardy rule. 

Inert electrolytes show ion specificity, as discussed in Chapter 2 and illustrated in Figures 2.4, 2.5, 2.9, and 2.10. The anions affect the positive branches of the charging and electrokinetic curves, and the cations affect the negative branches. The affinity to particular monovalent anions and cations depends on the character of the surface, and follows the hard- soft acid-base principle that is, hard surfaces prefer to adsorb hard ions, and soft surfaces prefer to adsorb soft ions. The effects of ion specihcity on the charging and electrokinetic curves are usually minor. The affinity series observed in coagulation behavior are termed Hoffmeister series. 

The critical coagulation concentration, often abbreviated as CCC, is the minimum concentration of an (inert) electrolyte that is just sufficient to coagulate a dispersion. By coagulate we usually mean a visible... 

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