Historical Overview on Depletion

In this book depletion in colloidal dispersions is a central theme. As we saw in Sect. 1.2.5 depletion effects in colloidal dispersions are caused by an unbalanced force. From a physics point of view the depletion force between colloidal particles 

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This chapter gives an introduction into colloidal interactions, including the depletion force in a historical context, and provides examples of the manifestations of depletion effects. First, we start with a brief overview on colloidal interactions in Sect. 1.2 including the basic concept of the depletion interaction. We sketch the effects of unbalanced forces, amongst which depletion forces in colloidal dispersions from a historical perspective in Sect. 1.3. Finally, we discuss some consequences of depletion forces in Sect. 1.4, followed by a brief Outline of the other Chapters of this book in Sect. 1.5. 

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