How are Colloidal Dispersions Prepared

Once the dirty spot is removed from the substrate being laundered, it is important that it not be redeposited. Solubilization of the detached material in micelles of surfactant has been proposed as one mechanism that contributes to preventing the redeposition of foreign matter. Any process that promotes the stability of the detached dirt particles in the dispersed form will also facilitate this. We see in Chapter 11 how electrostatic effects promote colloidal stability. The adsorption of ions —especially amphipathic surfactant ions —onto the detached matter assists in blocking redeposition by stabilizing the dispersed particles. Materials such as carbox-ymethylcellulose are often added to washing preparations since these molecules also adsorb on the detached dirt particles and interfere with their redeposition. 

The solubility of the monomers of bilayer-forming molecules is usually very low, say, in the range of 10 -10 ° M. Crystals of such amphiphiles immersed in water tend to swell. In this way lamellar liquid crystals (multilamellar vesicles) made up of bilayers packed in large stacks, separated by water molecules, are usually formed. They reach dimensions of a few thousands of nanometers. These lamellar structures may appear in different forms that readily interchange in response to small variations in temperature or composition. Unilamellar vesicles having a radius of a few tens up to a few hundreds of nanometers are derived from the lamellar liquid crystals by mechanical rupturing as occurs in ultrasonic treatment, for example. The unilamellar vesicles are thermodynamically unstable, and, hence, the properties of a unilamellar vesicle dispersion depend on how it was prepared. The colloidal stability of such a vesicle system is determined by the rate of fusion between two vesicles. This rate, in turn, is governed by the rules of colloidal stability discussed in Chapter 16. Anyway, the colloidal stability of unilamellar vesicles allows their use for in vitro studies of physical and chemical bilayer and membrane properties. 

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