Colloidal suspensions, measurement

There are a number of complications in the experimental measurement of the electrophoretic mobility of colloidal particles and its interpretation see Section V-6F. TTie experiment itself may involve a moving boundary type of apparatus, direct microscopic observation of the velocity of a particle in an applied field (the zeta-meter), or measurement of the conductivity of a colloidal suspension. 

Samples that contain suspended matter are among the most difficult types from which to obtain accurate pH readings because of the so-called suspension effect, ie, the suspended particles produce abnormal Hquid-junction potentials at the reference electrode (16). This effect is especially noticeable with soil slurries, pastes, and other types of colloidal suspensions. In the case of a slurry that separates into two layers, pH differences of several units may result, depending on the placement of the electrodes in the layers. Internal consistency is achieved by pH measurement using carefully prescribed measurement protocols, as has been used in the determination of soil pH (17). 

The behavior of colloidal suspensions is controlled by iaterparticle forces, the range of which rarely extends more than a particle diameter (see Colloids). Consequentiy suspensions tend to behave like viscous Hquids except at very high particle concentrations when the particles are forced iato close proximity. Because many coating solutions consist of complex mixtures of polymer and coUoidal material, a thorough characterization of the bulk rheology requires a number of different measurements. 

Determine the minimum amount of protein A required to stabilize the colloidal gold sol being used. The colloidal suspension should be adjusted, if needed, with 0.1M K2CO3 to pH 6-7. Measure the pH of the sol using a gel-filled electrode. Determining the stabilization amount of protein A can be done according to the method described in Section 1, this chapter. 

Hence c(g/ml) is the concentration of colloidal suspension G90 is the reading on the LS photometer at 6 = 90°, 2 is the path length, which equals the cell diameter when using a cylindrical cell t is the turbidity obtained from measurements of optical density. Table 4 gives the results of calibrating a Sofica instrument with colloidal... 

Table III suggests some of the proton transfer kinetic studies one is likely to hear most about in the near future. The very first entry, colloidal suspensions, is one that Professor Langford mentioned earlier in these proceedings. In the relaxation field, one of the comparatively new developments has been the measurement of kinetics of ion transfer to and from colloidal suspensions. Yasunaga at Hiroshima University is a pioneer in this type of study (20, 21, 22). His students take materials such as iron oxides that form colloidal suspensions that do not precipitate rapidly and measure the kinetics of proton transfer to the colloidal particles using relaxation techniques such as the pressure-jump method.

In another application, the magnitude of the zeta potential is measured as a function of added counterions. The variation in zeta potential is found to be related to the stability of the colloidal suspension. The results of a gold colloidal suspension (gold solute) are reported as follows ... 

So far, we have prepared and tested many kinds of colloids, mainly in nonaqueous suspensions with combinations of metals or alloys as a dispersed phase and organic liquids as the dispersion media, without the use of any dispersing agents these are listed in Table 9.4.1. We next give some examples of transmission electron micrographs of nanoparticles produced by an aerosol method. A sample for TEM measurement was obtained by dropping colloidal suspension onto a Cu mesh coated with an evaporated carbon film of 10 nm thickness. Many colloids were so unstable... 

When the liquid, solution or lyophobic colloidal suspension contains asymmetric particles or when it is too concentrated, other methods must be applied to measure the viscosity. This is for instance the case with clay suspensions. In the past the viscosity of clay suspensions was measured by means of a bucket with a hole in it. The bucket was filled with clay suspension and after the stopper had been removed from the hole, the time required by the volume to drain was measured as a function of e.g. the volume and composition. Later mechanical methods were applied. One of them is based on the principle that a metal cylinder or disc, suspended from a torsion thread, is exposed to a certain resistance when you rotate it in the solution or suspension. Before the measurement the cylinder or disc is turned 360° anti-clockwise and then released. After having revolved over a certain angle, the cylinder or disc will change its direction of rotation. The rotation angle is a measure for the viscosity. 

Sun, Z. Huang, Y. Sevick-Muraca, E.M., Precise analysis of frequency domain photon migration measurement for characterization of concentrated colloidal suspensions Rev. Sci. Instrum. 2002, 73, 383-393. 

Statistical mechanics was originally formulated to describe the properties of systems of identical particles such as atoms or small molecules. However, many materials of industrial and commercial importance do not fit neatly into this framework. For example, the particles in a colloidal suspension are never strictly identical to one another, but have a range of radii (and possibly surface charges, shapes, etc.). This dependence of the particle properties on one or more continuous parameters is known as polydispersity. One can regard a polydisperse fluid as a mixture of an infinite number of distinct particle species. If we label each species according to the value of its polydisperse attribute, a, the state of a polydisperse system entails specification of a density distribution p(a), rather than a finite number of density variables. It is usual to identify two distinct types of polydispersity variable and fixed. Variable polydispersity pertains to systems such as ionic micelles or oil-water emulsions, where the degree of polydispersity (as measured by the form of p(a)) can change under the influence of external factors. A more common situation is fixed polydispersity, appropriate for the description of systems such as colloidal dispersions, liquid crystals, and polymers. Here the form of p(cr) is determined by the synthesis of the fluid. 

Filella, M., Zhang, J., Newman, M.E. and Buffie, J. (1997) Analytical applications of photon correlation spectroscopy for size distribution measurements of natural colloidal suspensions capabilities and limitations. Colloids Surf. A Physicochem. Eng. Aspects, 120, 27 16. 

S. J. Johnson, P. L. Frattini and G. G. Fuller, Simultaneous dichroism and birefringence measurements of dilute colloidal suspensions in transient shear flow, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 104,440 (1985) S. J. Johnson and G. G. Fuller, Flowing colloidal suspensions in non-Newtonian suspending fluids decoupling the composite birefringence, Rheol. Acta, 25, 405 (1986). 

The average floccule radius in a flocculating colloidal suspension was measured as a function of time by light-scattering methods and the data were fitted to the equation ... 

Protein Composition of Milk. Skim milk is a colloidal suspension of extreme complexity. The particulate phase, the casein micelles, consists primarily of a mixture of asi, as2, / , and x-caseins combined with calcium ions and an amorphous calcium-phosphate-citrate complex. The soluble phase contains lactose, a fraction of the caseins and calcium, and, in raw milk, the whey proteins, which are predominantly /3-lacto-globulin and a-lactalbumin. When milk is centrifuged at high speed (in our experiments, 30 min at 110,000 X gravity), the casein micelles sediment. This permits one to separate the two physical phases of skim milk and to measure changes in composition of the phases resulting from... 

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