Surface area, colloid

Dye sensitization of electrodes is an old area of science with a rich history. The field has experienced renewed interest owing to the development of high surface area colloidal semiconductor electrodes. These materials yield impressive solar conversion efficiencies when employed in regenerative solar cells that have already found niche applications and have the real possibility of replacing traditional solid-state photovoltaics. Thus for the first time in history a solar cell designed to operate on a molecular level is useful from a practical point of view. It is also likely that other applications in the growing areas of molecular photonic materials will arise. 

Besides process development and dissolution rate enhancement, the phenomenon of adsorption at solid surfaces is also useful in many other aspects of pharmaceutics. By adsorbing moisture onto its large surface area, colloidal silica has been frequently used as a... 

The particle size distributions of the composites and those of the reference PCCs were steep, as shown by the 75/25 ratio with the exception of colloidal PCC. The colloidal PCCs had the largest surface area, as measured with the nitrogen absorption technique, among the various crystal habits in both composite and reference fillers. Also, at the same particle size, colloidal composite and reference fillers show a significant difference in respect to their surface areas. Colloidal PCCs may thus be... 

Silica sols are often called colloidal silicas, although other amorphous forms also exhibit colloidal properties owing to high surface areas. Sols are stable dispersions of amorphous siUca particles in a Hquid, almost always water. Commercial products contain siUca particles having diameters of about 3—100 nm, specific surface areas of 50—270 m /g, and siUca contents of 15—50 wt %. These contain small (<1 wt%) amounts of stabilizers, most commonly sodium ions. The discrete particles are prevented from aggregating by mutually repulsive negative charges. 

A colloid is a material that exists ia a finely dispersed state. It is usually a solid particle, but it may be a Hquid droplet or a gas bubble. Typically, coUoids have high surface-area-to-volume ratios, characteristic of matter ia the submicrometer-size range. Matter of this size, from approximately 100 nm to 5 nm, just above atomic dimensions, exhibits physicochemical properties that differ from those of both the constituent atoms or molecules and the macroscopic material. The differences ia composition, stmcture, and iateractions between the surface atoms or molecules and those on the iaterior of the colloidal particle lead to the unique character of finely divided material, specifics of which can be quite diverse (see Flocculating agents). 

RO membrane performance in the utility industry is a function of two major factors the membrane material and the configuration of the membrane module. Most utility applications use either spiral-wound or hollow-fiber elements. Hollow-fiber elements are particularly prone to fouling and, once fouled, are hard to clean. Thus, applications that employ these fibers require a great deal of pretreatment to remove all suspended and colloidal material in the feed stream. Spiral-wound modules (refer to Figure 50), due to their relative resistance to fouling, have a broader range of applications. A major advantage of the hollow-fiber modules, however, is the fact that they can pack 5000 ft of surface area in a 1 ft volume, while a spiral wound module can only contain 300 ftVff. 

An important consequence of the smallness of the size of colloidal particles is that the ratio of surface area to weight is extremely large. Phenomena, such as adsorption, which depend upon the size of the surface will therefore play an important part with substances in the colloidal state. 

Sintered metal fibers with filaments of uniform size (2-40 (tm), made of SS, Inconel, or Fecralloy , are fabricated in the form of panels. Gauzes based on thicker wires (100-250 tm) are made from SS, nickel, or copper. They have a low surface area of about 10 m g. Several procedures are used to increase the surface area, for example, leaching procedures, analogous to the production of Ra-Nickel, and electrophoretic deposition of particles or colloid suspensions. The porosity of structures formed from metal fibers range from 70 to 90%. The heat transfer coefficients are high, up to 2 times larger than for random packed beds [67]. 

Studies performed on CdS [282, 283] have revealed the importance of the microstructure, i.e., crystal structure, crystallite size, and geometrical surface area, in both the control of band structure and the concentration and mobility of charges, in relation to the photocatalytic performance of the photocatalyst. It has been shown also that the solubility product of CdS colloids prepared from acetate buffer aqueous solutions of suitable precursors increases from 7.2x 10 for large particles to about 10 for small (< 2.5 nm) particle colloids, this increase invoking a positive shift on the cathodic corrosion potential [284]. 

Dendrimer-protected colloids are capable of adsorbing carbon monoxide while suspended in solution, but upon removal from solution and support on a high surface area metal oxide, CO adsorption was nil presumably due to the collapse of the dendrimer [25]. It is proposed that a similar phenomena occurs on PVP-protected Pt colloids because removal of solvent molecules from the void space in between polymer chains most likely causes them to collapse on each other. Titration of the exposed surface area of colloid solution PVP-protected platinum nanoparticles demonstrated 50% of the total metal surface area was available for reaction, and this exposed area was present as... 

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