Page 11 - Introduction to Colloid and Surface Chemistry

2 The colloidal state

Electrophoretic deposition Sewage disposal
Emulsion polymerisation Soil conditioning
Food processing Sugar refining
Grinding Water clarification
Heterogeneous catalysis Water evaporation control
Ion exchange Water repellency
Lubrication Wetting
Oil-well drilling

As can be seen from the second of these lists, the existence of
matter in the colloidal state may be a desirable or an undesirable state
of affairs, and so it is important to know both how to make and how
to destroy colloidal systems.
Colloid science is very much an interdisciplinary subject, albeit
with certain areas of physics and physical chemistry most prominent.
Owing to the complexity of most colloidal systems, the subject often
cannot be treated readily with the exactness that tends to be
associated with much of these major subject areas. It is probably a
combination of this lack of precision and its interdisciplinary nature,
rather than lack of importance, that has been responsible in the past
for an unjustifiable tendency to neglect colloid science during
undergraduate academic training.
Until the last few decades colloid science stood more or less on its
own as an almost entirely descriptive subject which did not appear to
fit within the general framework of physics and chemistry. The use of
materials of doubtful composition, which put considerable strain on
the questions of reproducibility and interpretation, was partly
responsible for this state of affairs. Nowadays, the tendency is to
work whenever possible with well-defined systems (e.g. monodispersed
dispersions, pure surface-active agents, well-defined polymeric mater-
ial) which act as models, both in their own right and for real life
systems under consideration. Despite the large number of variables
which are often involved, research of this nature coupled with
advances in the understanding of the fundamental principles of
physics and chemistry has made it possible to formulate coherent, if
not always comprehensive, theories relating to many of the aspects of
colloidal behaviour. Since it is important that colloid science be
understood at both descriptive and theoretical levels, the study of this
subject can range widely from relatively simple descriptive material
to extremely complex theory.